HE  PHILOSOPHY 
HELPFULNESS. 


Philosophy  of 
Helpfullness 

By 
PRINCE  HOPKINS,  Ph.  B.,  M.  A. 


Vol.  I. 


PIONEER  PRINTERS 

420-422  Sixth  Street  South 
Minneapolis,    Minn. 


TO 

MY  MOTHER 

tho  her  views  so  differ  from  those    herein   expressed 

THIS  BOOK 

like  my  "INSTINCTIVE  PHILOSOPHY"  of 
which  it  is  in  part  an  enlargement 

IS 
AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 

Let  it  be  a  small  token  of  appreciation    for    my 
nurture  and  for  the  many  battles  she  has  fought  for 
«me  as  boy  and  as  man. 


COVER  DESIGN 

The  cover  design  represents  the 
waters  of  helpfulness  welling  forth 
to  revivify  all  living  things.  Vulcan 
symbolizing  creative  effort,  and 
Buddha  symbolizing  analytic  calm, 
are  both  reflected  in  the  fountain. 
Three  steps  of  ascent  are  represented 
from  the  boggy  level  of  corrupt  liv- 
ing to  the  pure  surface  of  the  fount. 
Overhead  hang  three  fruits,  intensity, 
permanency  and  universality  of  hap- 
piness. 

Acknowledgement  is  made  to  Miss 
Edith  Ordway  for  her  valuable  as- 
sistance in  digesting  certain  books. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  strength  of  any  excitation,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  past  performances  modify  all  our  na- 
tive tendencies.  This  fact  accepted,  we  are  moved 
by  four  primal  urges:  the  hunger-motive,  the 
love-motive,  and  their  counterparts,  the  rejection 
or  flight-motive  and  the  combat-motive — the  more 
specific  reflexes  and  instincts  derived  from  these 
may  therefore  be  classified  as  nutritive,  amative, 
rejective  or  combative. 

Our  nutritive  impulses  are  usually  draughted 
into  the  scramble  to  obtain  material  goods  faster 
than  our  desires  for  ever  more  and  more  of  such 
goods  can  grow.  Perceiving  unconsciously  the 
hopelessness  of  this  endeavor  for  all  but  an  un- 
scrupulous minority,  most  of  us  become  disheart- 
ened. The  writer's  object  is  to  relieve  this  dis- 
heartenment  by  sublimating  the  nutritive  urge 
into  the  channel  of  striving  toward  co-operative 
living.  As  a  hopeful  way  of  realizing  in  our  life- 
time some  of  the  happiness  of  non-competitive 
communism,  we  contribute  this  plan,  which  we 
ourselves  practice,  namely:  Let  the  devotee  oc- 
casionally find  a  time  when  it  will  be  convenient 
to  take  a  brief  holiday  away  from  his  possessions 
and  from  his  accustomed  associations.  During 
that  holiday  let  him  live  communistically,  cleav- 
ing to  no  property  but  helping  wherever  he  can 


2  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

without  taking  pay ;  then  returning  to  resume  his 
possessions  and  old  routine  until  such  time  as  con- 
venient to  again  try  this  adventure — in  the  long 
run  repeating  these  ventures  after  ever  shorter 
intervening  periods.  Let  him  urge  others  to  join 
with  him. 

Our  amative  impulses  now  vent  themselves  in 
procreating  too  numerous  children,  thus  adding 
to  our  and  the  community's  burden  of  support,  or 
else  in  regaling  "that  stream  of  emotions  we  call 
our  soul"  with  religion,  thus  holding  back  both 
ourselves  and  society  from  many  forms  of  growth. 
Our  object  in  this  book  is  to  sublimate  the  ama- 
tive urge  rather  into  artistic  creation  (the  ma- 
terial of  the  highest  art  and  highest  creation  is 
not  the  bodies  but  the  characters  of  children)  and 
into  impartiality. 

Our  rejective  impulses  now  turn  into  ostracism 
or  harsher  punishment  of  those  who  are  morally 
— sometimes  only  economically — weaker  than  we 
are;  but  doing  this  destroys  our  touch  with  hu- 
manity and  ends  only  in  embittering  both  our 
victim  and  ourselves.  While  resistence  to  evil  is 
necessary,  its  harmful  incidental  effects  can  be 
avoided  and  we  can  maintain  our  nature  sweet, 
only  if  we  sublimate  part  of  the  rejective  impulse 
into  some  self -humiliating  penance  on  ourselves 
as  the  condition  of  our  repressing  another  person. 
At  all  times  it  is  well  to  sublimate  some  of  our  re- 
jective tendency  into  the  form  of  a  mild  asceti- 
cism. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  3 

Finally,  the  combative  impulses  now  largely 
find  their  outlet  in  an  en  masse  handling  of  living 
beings ;  and  this  method  brutalizes  them  and  our- 
selves. We  endeavor  to  sublimate  the  combative 
tendency  into  a  glorious  fight  for  social  justice, 
thru  helping  to  unite  all  those  who  agree  to  these 
ideas  into  an  association  whose  controlling  com- 
mittee shall  consist,  one  part  of  electives  of  full 
members  of  the  association,  namely  persons  the 
most  active  in  service  of  its  ideals,  one  part  of 
electives  of  associate  members,  and  one  part  (to 
safeguard  minorities)  of  electives  of  persons  who 
are  undergoing  whatever  maximum  punishment 
or  restriction  the  association  ever  inflicts. 

We're  telling  you  here  the  whole  of  our  plans, 
so  you  may  be  under  no  misconception.  They're 
elucidated  in  more  detail  in  the  pages  which  fol- 
low. 

This  book  has  been  made  large  enough  to  in- 
clude a  fairly  comprehensive  amount  of  material, 
necessitated  by  the  controversial  nature  of  some 
of  the  points  argued  for  herein.  Consequently 
there  are  portions  of  it  which  are  not  adapted  to 
the  general  reader.  He  should  "skip"  these  pas- 
sages entirely,  or  he  will  simply  become  lost  in  a 
maze.  Thus,  you  would  best  omit  all  the  pages 
from  page  50  thru  page  82.  You  should  at  first 
reading  glance  thru  the  remainder  of  the  book 
and  judiciously  select  those  sections  which  are  of 
interest  to  you. 


CHAPTER  NO.   I 

This  book  is  simply  one  of  the  means  which 
occur  to  us  for  gathering  together  a  group  of 
people  who  will  put  into  practice  the  ideas  of  con- 
duct expressed  herein.  In  that  sense  it's  a  re- 
ligious book,  hence  most  every  chapter  is  in  part 
given  to  description  of  such  beliefs  and  religious 
usages  as  are  pertinent  to  the  topic  in  hand.  Then 
may  come  psychological  and  other  criticisms,  lead- 
ing up  to  the  suggestion  of  what  conduct  would 
be  the  very  best  among  members  of  an  ethical 
society  like  that  which  we're  forming.  The  topic 
of  the  present  chapter  is  the  possibility  and  rela- 
tive merits  of  making  Heaven  to  be  here,  on  earth, 
rather  seeking  it  beyond  the  stars. 


SECTION  NO.  I 

"But  evil  is  wrot  by  want  of  thot. 
As  well  as  by  want  of  heart." 

We  shall  commence  this  book  and  chapter  with 
a  consideration  of  certain  superstitious  origins. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  work,  however,  this  is  only 
meant  to  be  suggestive  and  won't  attempt  to  pre- 
sent any  topic  of  finished  form. 

In  each  chapter  we  shall  follow  the  plan  of 
treating  the  chapter  topic  with  respect  to  how  it 
concerns  corrupted  characters  under  the  head  of 
section  1 ;  in  respect  to  how  it  concerns  normally 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  5 

haphazard  types  under  head  of  section  2;  in  re- 
spect to  the  viewpoint  of  selfish  advantage,  under 
section  3,  and  in  respect  to  the  viewpoint  of  the 
man  wishing  to  help  others  under  section  4. 

The  topic  of  this  first  chapter  is  animism,  the 
primitive  way  of  thinking  about  the  universe 
which  treats  every  object  as  tho  it  were  alive  and 
as  tho  it  did  whatever  it  does,  intentionally. 

Each  person  has  a  tendency  to  regard  not  only 
other  persons  and  animals  but  everything  else,  as 
being  like  what  he  knows  best,  himself.  Hence, 
if  a  tree  falls  upon  him,  the  child  or  the  savage 
reads  into  its  action  his  own  feelings,  and  may  be- 
come enraged  against  what  he  regards  as  its  evil 
intention.  Later,  when  ideas  of  supernatural 
agencies  have  been  elaborated,  the  various  spirits 
and  demons  are  similarly  endowed  with  the  pas- 
sions and  other  characteristic  of  the  worshipper 
himself,  or  those  which  were  outstanding  in  per- 
sons of  authority  with  whom  he  early  came  into 
contact.  Each  of  us,  for  instance,  forms  a  con- 
ception which  greatly  affects  his  subsequent  life, 
from  his  father  and  his  mother ;  the  former  gen- 
erally representing  to  him  power,  and  the  latter, 
love. 

The  individual  "projects"  his  childhood's 
father-concept  (in  particular)  into  his  supersti- 
tious beliefs,  or  where  we  are  dealing  with  races 
and  not  with  individuals,  into  his  myths.  The 
idea  of  God  will  be  found  in  each  race  to  be  an  in- 
dex to  the  relationship  of  the  father  to  the  family, 


6  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

not  only  do  individuals  whose  recollection  of 
their  father  as  a  severe  authoritarian  tend  to  be- 
lieve in  a  God  of  similar  characteristics,  but  races 
— for  example  the  Hebrews  during  the  patri- 
archial  epoch — reflect  the  paternal  characteristics 
with  which  they  have  become  familiar  into  their 
concepts  of  the  deity. 

This  matter  is  related  closely  to  the  Freudian 
concept  of  incest-complexes  of  which  we  may  find 
evidences  in  the  myths  of  all  nations.  The  most 
usual  examples  given  are  the  myths  of  Oedipus 
and  of  Electra.  It  will  be  remembered  that  ac- 
cording to  the  Greek  story  an  Oracle  had  foretold 
that  Oedipus  would  live  to  kill  his  father  and 
marry  his  mother.  His  father  commanded  that 
he  be  killed  to  prevent  this  happening;  but  his 
mother  turned  him  over  to  some  peasants  who 
brot  him  up  as  their  own  son.  In  later  life  they 
sent  him  out  to  seek  his  fortune.  He  encountered, 
without  recognizing,  his  father  upon  the  road  and 
killed  him  in  combat.  Presently  the  people  of  the 
king  his  father's  city  chose  him  to  be  their  ruler 
and  he  married  the  queen  whom  he  did  not  know 
to  be  his  mother.  Dire  disasters  falling  upon  the 
city,  he  made  investigation  and  discovered  the 
true  facts.  The  story  of  Electra  similarly  relates 
how  she  usurped  her  mother's  place.  These  two 
myths  seem  to  represent  a  projection  of  a  conflict 
which  exists  in  every  individual  and  is  expressed 
by  children  sometimes  naively  in  the  form 
"Daddy,  when  mother  dies,  will  you  marry  me?" 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  7 

In  adult  life  so  crude  and  barbarous  a  desire  is 
suppressed  from  the  conscious  part  of  the  mind 
as  unworthy,  but  it  still  remains  in  the  uncon- 
scious. Here  it  may  give  rise  to  dreams  which 
seem  to  us  not  possibly  to  represent  our  true 
wishes  as  for  example  a  dream  that  our  parent 
of  the  same  sex  is  dead. 

Another  form  which  this  fantasy  takes  is  the 
wish  to  go  back  to  those  earliest  conditions  of 
natal  or  even  prenatal  existence  when  all  our 
wants  were  satisfied  by  the  mother  and  respon- 
sibilities had  not  yet  come  to  exist  for  us.  Myths 
representing  this  conception  usually  disguise  the 
wish  for  re-birth  under  some  such  conception  as 
that  of  the  hero  who  is  killed  and  resurrected. 
The. most  evident  forms  of  this  conception  are 
represented  in  stories  like  those  of  Mithra  and  of 
Christ,  both  of  whom,  as  you  probably  know,  were 
killed  and  then  resurrected;  but  another  form 
that  the  story  takes  is  seen,  for  example,  in  that 
of  the  Babylonian  Fish-God  Cannes,  who  comes 
out  of  the  sea  to  bring  gifts  and  blessings  to  man- 
kind, returns  again  into  the  sea,  etc.  Submer- 
gence under  the  sea  representing  equally  the  condi- 
tions before  birth  and  after  death.  Similarly 
there  is  the  Egyptian  myth  of  Osiris  who  is  be- 
trayed into  the  hands  of  the  demon  Set  (Note 
that  the  hero  never  dies  in  fair  combat,  but  al- 
ways thru  betrayal.)  The  pieces  into  which  Set 
cuts  Osiris'  body  are  scattered  to  the  corners  of 
the  heavens,  but  are  brought  together  by  his  faith- 


8  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

f ul  sister-wife,  so  that  he  is  resurrected  again  in 
the  form  of  the  young  rising  sun  Horus.  The 
descent  and  rise  of  the  sun  are  taken  in  all  re- 
ligions, as  emblematical  of  death  and  resurrec- 
tion. Many  primitive  people  believe  that  a  great 
dragon  swallows  the  sun  in  the  evening  and 
swims  back  towards  the  east  under  the  ocean  and 
that  when  he  is  approaching  the  eastern  horizon 
the  sun-hero  manages  from  inside  the  monster's 
belly  to  deal  a  death  thrust  at  its  heart ;  then  he 
cuts  his  way  out  and  re-appears  glorious  at  dawn. 
You  will  perhaps  recall  that  in  the  Old  Testament 
are  references  to  Leviathans  and  to  the  struggle 
of  old  against  the  overwhelming  waters  which 
biblical  students  account  for  as  a  faint  survival 
of  the  old  Babylonian  story  of  the  creation.  .Con- 
sider also  the  story  of  Jonah  who  is  swallowed  by 
the  whale,  is  carried  under  the  sea  and  then  is 
vomited  forth  upon  the  land  to  continue  his  work 
of  redemption.  Baptism  as  practiced  in  various 
religions  represents,  in  symbolical  form,  drown- 
ing and  re-birth  to  the  new  and  spiritual  life. 

How  the  symptoms  of  a  neurotic  may  be  sym- 
bolical satisfactions  of  the  libido,  or  body  of  his 
desires,  has  been  shown  by  neurologists.  In  the 
normal  individual,  his  dreams  subserve  similar 
but  less  intense  cravings — and  protect  his  sleep 
from  disturbance  by  emotion.  In  the  Ethnic 
group,  its  myths  or  its  religion  play  the  same  role. 
As  we  said,  the  concept  of  the  godhead  corre- 
sponds almost  invariably  to  the  character  of  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  9 

father.  In  patriarchial  ages,  God  is  a  severe 
judge;  in  civilized  times  he  is  more  gentle  and 
forgiving.  For  each  individual,  too,  the  national 
god-ideal  is  sure  to  be  modified  by  the  demands  of 
his  personal  father-complex. 

In  these  pages  we  shall  review  some  of  the 
principal  world-viewpoints  that  man  has  thot  out 
for  himself  since  first  he  arrived  at  sufficient  in- 
telligence to  opine  at  all  upon  such  matters. 

The  most  primitive  types  of  belief  proceed  from 
animistic  superstitions.  (1)  Savage  man  attrib- 
utes the  movements  of  trees,  etc.,  to  the  spirits 
that  inhabit  all  objects,  and  control  is  sought  over 
the  objects  by  directing  attention  on  these  spirits. 
(2)  The  spirit  is  separable  from  its  physical 
habitants.  (3)  The  spirit  itself,  tho  somewhat 
impalpable,  yet  is  distinguished  from  grosser  ma- 
terial only  by  the  degree  of  its  density,  for  not 
until  Descartes'  day  was  drawn  the  modern  sharp 
differentiation  between  "mind"  and  "matter." 
Indeed,  to  the  Greeks  the  "spirit"  of  a  thing 
wasn't  far  from  synonymous  with  our  idea  of  its 
Purpose — as  if  the  "spirit"  of  a  hunting-dog  were 
Pursuit  of  Game,  etc. 

The  animistic  attitude  even  credits  beasts  with 
living  in  families,  having  magic,  etc. 

One  point  that  must  always  be  noted  when 
we're  concerned  with  the  origin  of  religions  is 
that  it  is  the  tendency  of  primitive  men,  as  we 
note  it  is  the  tendency  with  children,  to  regard 
all  things  as  more  or  less  like  themselves  and  to 


10  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

attribute  even  to  objects  that  we  would  call  dead 
volition.  For  example,  a  child  who  has  been  hurt 
by  catching  his  finger  in  the  door  will  fly  into  a 
rage  and  beat  the  door  as  tho  the  latter  had  been 
guilty  of  an  intentional  offense.  If  this  tendency 
is  so  innate,  you  mustn't  be  surprised  that  when 
men  had  begun  to  hold  a  theory  of  every  object 
having  its  double  or  spirit,  they  should  very  read- 
ily justify  such  actions  as  that  of  the  angry  child, 
upon  the  ground  that  the  spirit  within  the  object 
that  had  injured  them  was  evilly  motived  toward 
them,  and  if  they  showed  themselves  resentful 
toward  the  object,  such  rage  might  modify  its 
future  conduct  even  as  their  anger  might  affect 
the  conduct  of  a  living  creature.  This  is  the  atti- 
tude called  animism.  Its  growth  and  development 
are  due  to  it  seemingly  to  offer  a  new  means  of 
controlling  the  forces  of  nature. 

The  present  writer  has  observed  primitive  re- 
ligions only  in  Hawaii  and  Java ;  and  in  both  those 
countries  vestiges  that  are  left  of  the  primitive 
beliefs  of  the  natives  are  -corrupted  by  Mohamme- 
dan and  Christian  additions.  The  dwellers  on  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  are  today  largely  Christians, 
and  in  Java  they  are  mainly  Mohammedans,  al- 
though in  both  these  countries  primitive  practices 
still  persist  to  some  extent. 

Perhaps  the  most  distinctive  feature  of  the  Ha- 
waiian beliefs  was  their  veneration  for  the  power- 
ful spirits  which  are  supposed  to  dwell  in  the  vol- 
canoes. But  we  ought  to  go  back  first  to  the  ques- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  11 

X 

tion  of  how  these  people  ever  got  the  notion  of 
spirits  at  all.  On  inquiring  into  the  analogous 
beliefs  of  people  like  ourselves,  we  find  that  for 
the  most  part,  we  moderns  accept  a  good  deal  of 
material  that  has  been  handed  down  by  tradition. 
But  by  looking  far  enough  back  into  the  past, 
one  comes  to  the  time  when  the  very  earliest 
beliefs  were  beginning  to  be  evolved.  If  there  is 
any  truth  in  the  theory  of  human  evolution — and 
no  competent  judge  today  any  longer  denies  this 
hypothesis — there  must  have  been  a  period  when 
our  race  was  just  becoming  human  and  intelli- 
gent, and  ceasing  any  longer  to  be  animals  moti- 
vated only  by  instincts  that  were  unmodified  by 
reflection.  As  man  is  preeminently  the  potential- 
ly intelligent  animal,  so  he  is  also  preeminently 
the  animal  gifted  with  imagination. 

In  common  with  other  creatures,  men  dream; 
and  that  not  only  at  night,  but  in  their  daytime 
reveries.  But  whereas  the  lower  animals  can 
hardly  be  presumed  to  seek  for  their  dreams  any 
rational  explanation,  it  is  the  characteristic  of 
men  that  they  try  in  some  intellectual  way  to  har- 
monize all  the  less  comprehended  phenomena  of 
life  with  phenomena  already  more  or  less  familiar. 
We  moderns  explain  dreams  as  products  of  our 
inner  desires  that  find  in  the  form  of  reveries  the 
satisfactions  which  are  denied  them  in  the  living 
world  of  reality.  The  material  of  which  these 
dreams  are  constructed,  or  as  one  might  say,  the 
garments  in  which  unconscious  desires  clothe 


12 

themselves,  are  experiences  and  pictures  taken 
over  bodily  from  the  world  of  real  phenomena. 

The  savage,  however,  hasn't  advanced  far 
enough  to  explain  his  dreams  in  such  terms.  He 
still  retains  a  good  deal  of  the  lower  animals'  con- 
fusion of  inner  subjective  experience  with  objec- 
tive reality.  At  night  he  dreams  that  his  friends 
have  been  moving  about  and  talking  to  him,  but 
upon  awakening  he  repeatedly  discovers  that  as 
a  matter  of  fact  they  were  all  the  time  quietly 
asleep  in  their  own  tepees  and  deny  all  knowledge 
of  the  nocturnal  adventures  that  he  attributes  to 
them.  Of  this  there  seems  to  him  only  one  ex- 
planation possible;  that  is,  that  his  friends  have 
doubles,  so  that  while  one  form  reposed  in  the 
tent,  another  went  on  journeys.  What  more  nat- 
ural that  that  he  should  consider  their  own 
shadows  (shades)  as  being  these  doubles.  An 
identical  curiosity  about  shadows  is  evinced  by 
children.  Their  feeling  has  been  well  expressed 
by  Stevenson1: 

"I  have  a  little  shadow  that  goes  in  and  out  with  me, 
And  what  can  be  the  use  of  him  is  more  than  1  can  see; 
He  is  very,  very  like  me  from  the  heels  up  to  the  head, 
And  I  see  him  jump  before  me,  when  I  jump  into  my  bed. 

"The  funniest  thing  about  him  is  the  way  he  likes  to  grow: 
Not  at  all  like  proper  children,  which  is  always  very  slow; 
For  he  sometimes  shoots  up  taller  like  an  India  rubber 

ball, 
And  he  sometimes  gets  so  little  that  there's  none  of  him 

at  all. 


1  Stevenson,   R.   L. — My   Shadow. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  13 

"He  hasn't  got  a  notion  of  how  children  ought  to  play, 
And  can  only  make  a  fool  of  me  in  every  sort  of  way; 
He  stays  so  close  beside  me,  he's  a  coward,  you  can  see; 
I'd  think  shame  to  stick  to  nursie  as  that  shadow  sticks 
to  me. 

"One  morning,  very  early,  before  the  sun  was  up, 
I  rose  and  found  the  shining  dew  on  every  buttercup; 
But  my  lazy  little  shadow,  like  an  arrant  sleepy-head, 
Had  stayed  at  home  behind  me  and  was  fast  asleep  in 
bed.'" 

When,  in  course  of  time,  a  class  of  men  were 
evolved  whose  superior  learning  and  cleverness 
enabled  them  to  Jive  by  their  wits  upon  the  cre- 
dulity of  the  tribe,  and  so  to  enjoy  leisure  for  thot, 
these  began  to  ask  themselves,  "What  is  the  na- 
ture of  this  double  ?"  "What's  the  nature,  what's 
the  meaning  of  life  itself?" 

The  reason  why  there  has  been  so  much  dis- 
agreement on  this  great  matter  is  that  people,  be- 
fore trying  to  solve  it,  haven't  asked  themselves, 
"First  of  all,  just  what  do  we  intend  our  question 
to  mean?"  A  story  relates  that  a  peasant  and 
his  son  were  sitting  in  the  shade  of  their  oak  tree, 
when  several  strangers  came  along  the  road. 
"How  do  you  like  my  oak  tree?"  asked  the  peasant 
of  the  first  of  these.  The  stranger  responded,  "Oh, 
it's  an  excellent  bit  of  wood ;  yes,  an  excellent  bit 
of  wood!"  "So  it  is,  Mr.  Lumberman,"  returned 
the  peasant ;  then  he  put  the  same  question  .to  the 
second  stranger.  "What  do  you  think  of  my 
tree?"  The  second,  having  answered,  "Oh,  what 
fine  acorns  to  fatten  hogs  upon !"  our  peasant  re- 
plied, "So  they  be,  Mr.  Farmer,"  and  turned  to 


14  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

the  last  of  the  three  with  his  question,  "How  do 
you  like  my  tree?"  When  the  last  of  the  men 
had  answered,  "What  a  roost  from  which  to  pick 
off  the  enemy's  officers!"  the  peasant  rejoined, 
"Quite  so,  Mr.  Sharpshooter!"  By  this  time  the 
peasant's  small  son  was  getting  curious.  "Dad, 
how  did  you  know  that  those  guys  were  a  lumber- 
man, a  farmer  and  a  sharpshooter?"  So  his 
father  told  him,  "It  was  by  the  way  they  under- 
stood my  question.  The  question  was  the  same 
in  wording,  but  to  no  two  of  the  men  did  it  have 
the  same  meaning,  because  no  two  were  of  the 
same  trade !"  So,  with  people  who  tried  to  answer 
satisfactorily  the  question  of  "What  is  Life?"  the 
chief  trouble  has  been  that  they  didn't  agree  on 
what  they  all  meant  by  their  query. 

Now,  the  writer  is  interested  in  life  from  the 
point  of  view  of  a  psychologist,  and  his  friend 
Jameson  from  that  of  a  lawyer,  while  Greenbie  is 
a  writer,  and  you  are  what  you  are.  Is  there, 
then,  no  one  class  that'll  include  us  all?  Yes,  for 
whatever  else  we  are,  we're  interested  in  living 
life.  What  we  all  want  to  know  is,  how  more 
successfully  to  live.  Life  is  full  of  possibilities; 
they're  its  sun-light ;  it  is  full  of  failures ;  they're 
its  shadows:  what  we  want  is  neither  the  mere 
light  nor  shade,  qua  light  or  shade,  but  from  the 
clues  they  give  us,  to  realize  the  truth  behind.  To 
no  less  a  realization  than  this  should  you  be  con- 
tented that  these  pages  should  bring  you  hints  of : 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  15 

shall  we,  therefore,  carry  our  query  into  meta- 
physics ? 

"Yes,  of  course,"  you  admit.  "My  question  is 
more  in  the  province  of  the  metaphysician.  Mr. 
Metaphysician,  can  you  tell  us  what  is  Life?" 

"Yes,"  says  Mr.  Metaphysician,  "I  can  give  you 
half  a  hundred  explanations.  Choose  any  one  of 
them,  or  none  of  them,  and  I  will  disprove  all  the 
others  for  you,  whichever  they  are." 

This  is  very  kind  of  him  and  very  obliging ;  but 
reader,  if  you  are  of  the  same  mind  with  the 
writer,  you'll  decide  that  all  his  fifty  explanations 
so  ingeniously  proven  and  disproven,  only  show 
that  he  doesn't  know  much  more  about  the  matter 
than  did  we.  His  earnest  and  persistent  inquiry 
after  these  elusive  things,  however,  at  least  ought 
to  encourage  us  not  wholly  to  give  up  hope  of 
finding  answer  some  day,  provided  we  avoid  the 
entanglements  of  the  purely  metaphysical  method. 
You've  heard  people  say,  with  an  air  of  positive- 
ness  that's  in  strange  contradiction  to  the  content 
of  their  own  words,  that  "the  human  mind,  altho 
it  can  believe  this  or  that,  never  can  know  any- 
thing positively."  You  have  heard  that  when  old 
Socrates  preached  about  the  value  of  knowledge, 
certain  men  asked  him  to  tell  them  what  knowl- 
edge was,  and  thereby  utterly  confounded  him. 
But  that  we  can  know  is  what,  after  some  pre- 
liminary explanations,  we  propose  to  prove,  by 
actually  giving  you  a  definition  of  Truth. 

First,  let  us  introduce  two  big  words:  "phe- 


16  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

nomenon"  and  "noumenon."  Phenomenon  means 
an  event  in  the  material  world,  such  as  a  feeling 
or  a  thot.  Phenomena  are  going  on  about  us  all 
the  time;  rocks  crumble  away,  rivers  glide  into 
the  sea,  or  the  wheels  of  the  factories  spin  around ; 
other  phenomena  are  the  secretion  of  juices  by 
the  body,  the  contracting  and  relaxing  of  muscles, 
the  growth  of  nerve-fibres,  and  the  readjustment 
of  brain-structure.  Examples  of  noumena,  on  the 
contrary,  are  pleasure,  pain,  seeing,  hearing,  emo- 
tion, memories,  imaginings,  and  all  the  fantasies 
and  facts  of  mind. 

Now,  in  such  creatures  as  you  and  we  are,  the 
inner  phenomena  of  secretion,  adjustment  of  cells, 
etc.,  go  on  in  a  different  way  because  of,  and  after 
the  occurrence  of,  outside  phenomena  such  as, 
e.  g.,  the  bringing  in  of  a  tempting  dish  of  food. 
But  at  the  same  time  as  the  inner  phenomena 
change  their  way  of  going  on,  the  noumena  also 
change.  If  the  change  of  inner  phenomena  be, 
in  the  above  case  of  food  brot  in,  a  change  to  a 
greater  secretion  of  digestive  juices  and  altera- 
tions in  certain  nerve  cells,  the  corresponding 
change  of  noumena  may  be  a  change  from  what- 
ever train  of  thot  previously  was  going  on,  to  an 
expectation  of  the  act  of  eating.  All  this  time 
certain  associations  are  being  formed.  Thru 
what  mechanism  is  no  matter  j  ust  yet.  But  after 
some  experience,  the  noumenon  "anticipation  of 
eating"  doesn't  await  the  actual  sight  of  the  food 
set  on  the  table  before  us,  but,  e.  g.,  arises  so  soon 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  17 

as  we  see  mother  come  into  our  nursery  with  a 
certain  form  of  vessel  in  her  hand,  which  in  the 
past  always  has  contained  food. 

Now,  let's  represent  the  phenomena  in  this  case 
by  capital  letters;  let: 

E  stand  for  Entrance  of  mother  with  a  pink 
bowl. 

U  stand  for  Uncovering  of  bread-and-milk 
within  the  bowl. 

F  stand  for  Feeding  of  us  by  mother  with  said 
bread-and-milk. 

M  stand  for  mouthing  by  us  of  the  bread-and- 
milk. 

Then  day  after  day  the  succession  of  phe- 
nomena which  takes  place  is:  E,  U,  F,  and  M. 

Let's  represent  the  noumena  in  the  same  case 
by  small  letters;  let: 

e  stand  for  hearing  and  seeing  mother  Enter 
with  the  bowl. 

u  stand  for  seeing  and  smelling  the  bread-and- 
milk,  as  Uncovered. 

/  stand  for  feeling  the  spoon  put  into  our  mouth, 
Feeding. 

ra  stand  for  taste  and  muscular  sensations  due 
to  Mouthing. 

Then  day  after  day  the  succession  of  noumena 
which  takes  place  is:  e,  u,  f,  and  m.  Now,  the 
point  is  that  a  time  comes  when  so  soon  as  phe- 
nomenon E  has  hit  off  noumenon  e,  the  noumena 
u,  f,  and  m  take  their  cue  direct  from  e,  and  don't 
wait  till  U,  F,  and  M  have  occured.  Result, 


18  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

noumenon  m  precedes,  instead  of  following,  the 
phenomenon  which  normally  used  to  give  it  birth, 
M;  the  sensations  of  mouthing  anticipate  the 
mouthing  itself ;  you  think  of  the  meal  so  soon  as 
you  see  the  mother. 

But  one  day  mother  brings,  in  her  bowl,  not 
food,  but  floor-polish.  At  first  blush  everything 
is  as  before ;  phenomenon  E  is  present  and  there- 
fore quite  properly  gives  rise  to  noumenon  e.  But, 
from  long  association,  e,  u,  f  and  m,  the  final 
term  m,  is  Truth  if  independently  a  phenomenon 
M  does  occur,  which,  if  it  gave  rise  to  any 
noumenon  directly,  would  give  rise  to  the 
noumenon  m.  Conversely,  m  is  Falsehood  in  all 
other  cases. 

But  while  it's  good  to  be  reassured  that  truth 
isn't  altogether  unattainable  by  man,  we  still  are 
a  long  way  from  finality  today.  On  those  supreme 
questions  which  we  were  just  discussing  almost 
hourly  comes  the  influx  of  new  discoveries  which 
make  us  skeptical  of  the  sacred  dogmas !  At  this 
instant  there's  before  the  writer  an  item2  headed 
"Where  Was  Soul  of  Girl  During  Time  She  Was 
'Dead'?"  in  which  the  wondering  newspaper 
writer  asks  "Where  did  the  soul  of  Anna  Loben- 
stein  go  when  heart  action  ceased  for  120 
seconds  ? 

"That  question,  resulting  from  the  now  famous 
case,  in  which  a  surgeon  who  had  just  operated 
on  the  Schenectady  girl  when  respiration  stopped, 

2  New  York,   May   26,    1917. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  19 

placed  his  hand  within  the  abdominal  cavity  and 
massaged  the  life-giving  organ  until  it  returned 
to  its  normal  work,  has  aroused  discussion." 

Immediately  below  is  an  item :  "Dr.  Walter  B. 
Cannon,  professor  of  physiology  at  the  Harvard 
Medical  School,  has  perfected  a  scientific  means 
of  bringing  back  the  departed  spark  of  animal 
life.  He  declares  that  if  the  new  method  should 
be  employed  in  each  and  every  case  of  death  a 
large  percentage  of  the  supposed  inanimate  bodies 
could  be  revived.  The  method  consists  of  the 
introduction  of  a  tube  or  catheter  into  the 
pharynx,  pulling  up  the  tongue,  forcing  the  back 
part  of  it  against  the  roof  of  the  mouth  by  pres- 
sure applied  far  back  under  the  chin,"  etc. 

Maeterlinck's  book,  "Death,"  is  written  for  the 
reassurance  of  those  whom  religious  teachings  or 
morbid  contemplations  have  filled  with  fears  of 
the  hereafter.  We  regret  to  say  that  he  commits 
"the  one  sin  in  philosophy,  superficiality."  In  so 
brief  a  volume  it  is  impossible  to  go  at  all  deeply 
into  any  phase  of  the  subject.  The  alternatives 
are  to  give  a  mere  summary  of  the  possible  argu- 
ments, or  else  to  resort  to  general  statements  with- 
out proof.  Maeterlinck,  with  his  love  of  beauty 
and  mysticism,  of  course  chooses  this  latter  way. 

After  some  preliminaries,  he  states  that  "Out- 
side the  religions,  there  are  four  imaginable  solu- 
tions and  no  more:  total  annihilation;  survival 
with  our  consciousness  of  today ;  survival  without 
any  sort  of  consciousness;  lastly,  survival  with 


20  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

universal  consciousness  different  from  that  which 
we  possess  in  this  world."  Annihilation  is  un- 
acceptable because  (here  Maeterlinck  is  dog- 
matic) "We  are  prisoners  of  an  infinity  without 
outlet,  wherein  nothing  perishes."  Our  conscious- 
ness of  today  is  too  dependent  on  senses  and  bod- 
ily "organs  that  create  and  nourish  it,"  to  survive 
the  corporeal  demise.  Of  the  other  two  postulates, 
cessation  of  all  consciousness  certainly  offers  no 
grounds  for  fear,  since  then  "what  comes  is  the 
great  peace  so  often  prayed  for,  the  sleep  without 
measure,  without  dreams  and  without  awaken- 
ing ;"  whereas  to  blend  our  being  with  that  of  the 
universe  (the  fourth  possibility)  would  be  to 
achieve  great  bliss.  This  author  also  bids  us 
have  no  doubts  but  that  the  whole  tendency  of  the 
universe  is  toward  its  greater  felicity,  for  "If  it 
be  unhappy,  that  means  that  it  willed  its  own  un- 
happiness;  if  it  will  its  unhappiness,  it  is  mad; 
and,  if  it  is  mad,  that  means  that  our  reason  .  .  . 
judge  what  it  wholly  fails  to  understand." 

But  let's  return  to  our  savage  pondering  over 
his  dream  and  its  implication  that  while  a  friend's 
body  was  reposing  quietly  on  the  ground,  a  form 
of  •  similar  outward  appearance  was  actually 
wandering  about  and  visiting  him  during  the 
night.  At  other  times  our  savage  dreams  that 
he  himself  has  gone  abroad  and  camped  again  at 
the  scene  of  experiences  of  former  years.  His 
family  tell  him  that  during  the  whole  of  the  night 
they  saw  the  light  of  the  camp-fire  playing  upon 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  21 

his  immoveable  form  so  that  they  knew  he  re- 
mained there  with  them  and  had  not  gone  else- 
where. So  he  is  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
himself  also  has  his  double  and  that  this  double 
has  been  abroad  conversing  with  the  doubles  of  his 
friends  and  the  doubles  also  of  trees,  animals  and 
inanimate  objects.  He  comes  thus  to  think  that 
both  he  himself  and  his  friends  and  his  dog  and 
even  stones  and  mountains  all  have  their  dupli- 
cates in  a  mysterious  phantom  world. 

When  he  comes  to  speculate  upon  what  these 
doubles  may  be,  several  phenomena  present  them- 
selves for  his  consideration.  There  is,  for  ex- 
ample, his  shadow.  It  follows  him  about  during 
all  the  day  and  then  disappears  at  night.  It  has 
essentially  the  same  form  as  himself,  so  that  he 
might  very  easily  suppose  it  to  be  recognized  by 
other  persons.  It  seems  capable  of  movements 
mimicking  his  own,  a  fact  from  which  he  is  very 
ready  to  induce  that  it  is  endowed  with  its  own 
will  and  powers  of  movement.  Hence  the  word 
"shade"  is  used  in  the  sense  of  soul. 

At  other  times  the  savage  catches  sight  of  his 
reflection  in  a  quiet  pool.  There  he  sees  not  only 
very  perfect  presentation  of  his  form,  but  its 
likeness  even  in  color  and  fine  matters  of  detail. 
Such  an  image  is  always  puzzling  to  uninstructed 
minds;  you  know  how  wonderfully  Carrol  has 
portrayed  a  child's  imaginings  about  it,  in 
"Thru  the  Looking  Glass." 

Thirdly,  the  savage  notes  that  when  they're 


22  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

active,  men  breathe  violently;  whereas  they 
breathe  more  gently  during  sleep,  and  cease  to 
breathe  altogether  when  at  last  death  overtakes 
them.  So  he  comes  to  think  of  the  breath — of 
which  he  has  caught  sight  on  cold  frosty  days — 
as  perhaps  also  representing  the  double  which 
so  mysteriously  comes  and  goes.  Sleep,  indeed, 
to  the  savage,  is  thought  of  as  more  akin  to  death 
than  we  today  are  apt  to  think  it,  and,  for  that 
reason,  the  most  ignorant  peoples  (here  falsely  so 
called)  usually  have  none  of  the  terror  at  death 
which  is  found  among  peoples  who  have  submitted 
to  "the  benefit  of  clergy"  and  rejoice  in  highly 
artificial  religions. 

Lastly,  a  fourth  class  of  phenomena  which  con- 
vinces the  savage  of  the  reality  of  spirits  has  been 
given  altogether  too  little  consideration  by  most 
of  the  writers  upon  this  topic.  In  our  day  there 
is  still  great  interest  in  so-called  spirit-mediums — 
persons  who  go  into  a  trance  state  and  then  pre- 
tend to  have  communication  with  souls  of  the 
departed. 

We'll  return  to  this  matter  presently.  In  a  dis- 
cussion-group which  we  held,  of  adults,  we  at 
this  point  asked  the  members  of  the  class  to  give 
us  some  summary  of  their  own  beliefs  in  regard 
to  the  soul.  One  man  said  that  he  believed  we 
all  had  souls,  for  the  reason  that  the  Bible  so 
taught.  He,  however,  was  the  only  member  who 
seemed  to  place  his  belief  upon  this  authoritative 
standard  (if,  indeed,  he  could  have  found  in  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  23 

Bible  an  unequivocal  justification  for  his  asser- 
tion) .  The  other  members  mostly  inclined  to  the 
opinion  that  the  matter  was  incapable  of  definite 
proof  one  way  or  the  other.  A  majority  declared 
that  they  couldn't  easily  conceive  of  their  essen- 
tial self,  their  inner  consciousness,  as  ever  ceas- 
ing altogether  to  exist.  We  said  that  we  our- 
selves were  inclined  toward  this  attitude,  not  be- 
cause we  could  justify  it  upon  any  theoretical,  or, 
much  less,  scientific,  grounds,  but  admittedly  be- 
cause we  lacked  the  capacity  to  imagine  ourselves 
absolutely  "going  out"  like  a  candle  flame.  How- 
ever, it  seemed  to  us  that  we  must  rigidly  exclude 
from  the  possibility  of  continued  survival,  all 
those  faculties  of  the  mind  which  under  the  heads 
of  memory,  reason,  benevolence,  etc.,  it  has  been 
customary  to  associate  with  the  word  "soul." 
That  while  we  might  conceive  of  an  inner  self  as 
passing  into  the  body  of  another  animal  or  under- 
going some  other  kind  of  transition,  yet  any  soul 
necessarily  must  leave  behind  all  recollections  of 
a  former  life ;  hence  those  so-called  proofs  of  con- 
tinued existence  which  sometimes  are  offered, 
namely,  the  alleged  memories  of  former  exist- 
ences, must  be  put  out  of  court.  This  was  be- 
cause all  our  higher  mental  operations  depend 
upon  sensations,  memories,  etc.,  and  there  was 
more  than  mere  speculative  reason — there  was 
considerable  scientific  evidence  for  believing — 
that  the  capacity  for  having  sensations,  etc.,  in- 
heres in  brain  structure.  It  seems  to  be  a  fair  in- 


24  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ference  from  what  we  already  know  of  the  de- 
pendence of  mental  activity  upon  brain  structure, 
to  doubt  the  old  theory,  that  the  soul  and  not  the 
brain  is  the  ultimate  seat  of  mental  activity  and 
that  the  brain  is  "only  an  instrument."  Today 
that  theory  is  in  a  precarious  position. 

It  was  a  custom  among  the  Hawaiians  to  pay 
great  reverence  to  the  bones  of  their  departed 


ANCIENT    CHINESE    MEMORIAL 
TABLET 

chiefs,  because  the  soul  was  thot  to  hover  around 
these  enduring  portions  of  the  anatomy  of  the 
deceased.  It  became  highly  important,  therefore, 
to  bury  the  body  of  their  relatives  in  proper  fash- 
ion in  order  that  their  spirits  mightn't  continue 
to  go  mooning  about  in  the  night.  Savages  be- 
lieve that  these  spirits  are  often  very  malicious 
toward  those  who  in  real  life  were  their  friends 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  25 

or  even  relatives.  For  example,  one  traveller  tells 
how  a  woman  was  warned  by  her  dying  husband 
not  to  follow  his  funeral  quite  to  the  grave  be- 
cause he  was  afraid  his  spirit  would  then  eat  her. 
When,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  forgot  his  warning 
and  did  follow  too  far,  his  ghost  was  on  the  point 
of  doing  her  serious  injury,  only  at  the  last  mo- 
ment she  thought  to  call  on  the  names  of  the  gods. 
Often  tablets  and  wooden  figures  are  con- 
structed by  friends  of  a  dying  man,  in  the  expecta- 


STONE  FIGURES  IN  JAVA 

tion  that  his  spirit  will  take  up  its  abode  in  one. 
These  figures  or  stones  are  reared  to  invite 
friendly  demons  to  make  their  home  here  and 
ward  off  those  less  well-disposed.  In  the  picture 
shown  herewith,  you'll  see  two  big  stone  figures 
of  this  kind  in  Java ;  and  in  another  picture  hun- 
dreds of  little  idols  set  upon  the  top  of  a  wall  in 
Madura  that  look  like  gaily  painted  dolls  made  out 
of  plaster. 


26 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


The  veneration  given  to  idols  is  due  to  belief 
not  that  the  actual  blocks  of  stone  are  inherently 
possessed  of  any  supernatural  power,  but  simply 
that  these  form  convenient  dwelling  places  for 
departed  spirits  or  for  ghosts.  "For,"  argues  the 
savage,  "if  spirits  have  a  fondness  for  inhabiting 


IDOLS    ON    A    GARDEN    WALL   IN    MADURA 

living  bodies,  mayn't  they  be  supposed  to  attach 
themselves  to  the  stone  representations  that  we 
make  of  such  forms?" 

Fetishes  are  symbols  to  the  worshipper  him- 
self of  the  power  resident  in  a  deity,  just  as,  for 
example,  to  the  lovelorn  young  man  the  slipper 
or  handkerchief  of  his  sweetheart  may  bring  back 
to  him  the  emotions  which  he  more  properly 
might  be  supposed  to  feel  only  in  her  actual  pres- 
ence. Almost  any  kind  of  object  may  be  used  by 


27 

the  savage  as  a  fetish,  and  he  comes  to  believe  a 
certain  supernatural  power  to  inhere  in  the  fetish 
by  virtue  of  the  spirits  that  are  attracted  to  it. 

Spirits  are  supposed  very  often  also  to  take  up 
their  abodes  in  the  bodies  of  animals;  and  this 
idea  has  given  rise  to  many  weird  tales,  as  also 
to  things  which,  from  our  point  of  view  are  hu- 
morous. Mr.  Thacher,  headmaster  of  a  school 
the  writer  attended,  received  a  complaint  from 
his  Chinese  cook  that  the  cat  was  killing  chickens. 
"Then  why  don't  you  kill  the  cat?"  asked  Mr. 
Thacher.  "I  no  likee,"  answered  the  Chinaman, 
"maybe  he  my  glanmother.  !3" 

An  interesting  example  of  the  desire  to  secure 
hin^lf  from  being  haunted  by  the  spirits  of  ani- 
mals that  he  had  slain  is  shown  in  the  photograph 
herewith  submitted  of  a  number  of  animals  that 
were  placed  in  this  old  Chinese  temple  by  a  man 
who  had  been  a  great  hunter.  The  guide  told  us 
that  every  time  this  ancient  gentleman  had  killed 
a  deer  or  a  tiger  or  whatever  it  might  be,  he  had 
had  one  of  these  wooden  likenesses  constructed  to 
safeguard  him  from  the  creature's  ghost,  which 
might  naturally  be  expected  to  feel  toward  him  a 
certain  resentment. 

Savages  also  believe  that  the  spirits  of  departed 
men  may  take  up  their  abodes  in  the  bodies  of 
wild  animals ;  and  if  they  are  disposed  evilly,  they 
may  inhabit  some  vicious  creature  such  as  the 


3  Grandmother. 


28  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tiger.  You  have  probably  heard  of  were-wolves ; 
wolves  into  the  bodies  of  which  demons  or  malevo- 
lent ghosts  have  entered  in  order  in  a  fearful  way 
to  prey  upon  those  who  were  perhaps  the  ghosts' 
tribal  brothers.  A  similar  superstition  is  preva- 
lent among  the  Slav  people  of  parts  of  Europe. 
They  believe  that  a  departed  spirit  or  devil  will 
take  up  his  residence  in  a  dead  body,  the  blood  of 
which,  for  this  reason,  continues  to  remain  liquid ; 
these  spirits,  going  about  at  night  to  do  harm,  are 


IN     THE     ANIMAL   TEMPLE,   PEKIN 

known  as  vampires.  The  most  blood-curdling 
witch  story  in  fiction  is  based  upon  this  religion. 
It  is  now  out  of  print,  but  sometimes  you  can  ob- 
tain an  old  copy.  The  title  is  "Dracula." 

Probably  the  belief  in  reincarnation  arose  from 
the  fact  that  often  a  child  was  born  who  bore  re- 
semblance of  body  and  perhaps  of  mind  also  to 
some  member  of  the  family  who  recently  had  died. 
The  natural  inference  by  savages  who  understood 
little  of  heredity,  was  that  the  spirit  which  had 
so  recently  departed  had  now  come  back  again  to 
its  friends  in  the  form  of  the  newly  born  child. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  29 

The  child  would  sometimes  be  greeted  in  a  way 
indicating  this  belief. 

We  asked  the  above  mentioned  adult  discussion 
class  to  give  their  own  "reactions  to"  the  idea  of 
transmigration.  None  of  them  seemed  to  oppose 
the  idea  except  the  two  members  who  absolutely 
disbelieved  in  any  idea  of  the  survival  after  death. 
These  two  members  seemed  to  consider  that  con- 
sciousness was  a  sort  of  product  of  those  activ- 
ities which  go  on  in  the  body,  in  the  same  sense 
that  a  water  spout  is  a  product  of  certain  arrange- 
ments of  a  pipe  with  a  nozzle  and  a  proper  supply 
of  water,  and  they  thought  as  soon  as  the  bodily 
activities  ceased,  the  stream  of  consciousness 
must  "go  out"  just  as  absolutely  as  the  fountain 
might  cease  to  spout  when  someone  turns  off  the 
water,  or  as  the  flame  of  a  candle  "goes  out"  when 
it  is  extinguished.  It  seemed  to  the  writer  that  a 
good  approach  to  a  discussion  of  this  question 
would  be  to  ask  what  function  consciousness  plays 
in  animal  life.  Since  all  animals  apparently  are 
endowed  with  consciousness  we  might  expect  that 
endowment  with  consciousness  was  a  product  of 
natural  selection.  We  might  anticipate  that  the 
creatures  which  were  conscious  had,  by  the  fact 
of  that  quality,  some  survival-value  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence,  over  creatures  which  conceiv- 
ably were  pure  automatons.  More  specifically, 
the  function  of  consciousness  in  the  animal  auton- 
omy might  very  well  be  the  bringing  together  of 
various  sensations  into  one  general  feeling.  If  a 


30  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

person  looks  at  some  object,  each  portion  of  that 
object  throws  its  image  upon  a  particular  part 
of  the  retina  of  the  observer's  eye,  but  if  the  per- 
son now  moves  to  a  different  position  and  again 
regards  the  object,  all  parts  of  that  object  are 
now  thrown  on  to  entirely  new  parts  of  the  eye 
and  yet  we  are  somehow  able  to  recognize  the 
object  as  the  same.  Without  pretending  to  give 
an  explanation  which  could  be  regarded  as 
scientific,  possibly  we  may  draw  an  analogy  that 
will  be  in  some  ways  helpful.  We  might  suppose, 
for  example,  that  each  brain-cell  engaged  in  the 
process  of  intellectualizing  the  seen  object  were 
to  send  out  its  own  particular  kind  of  radiations 
and  that  somewhere  in  the  brain  or  near  it  were 
located  some  single  particle  (to  be  called  the  Self) 
which  would  be  affected  simultaneously  by  their 
radiations  from  all  these  different  cells  at  once. 
Or  it  would  partake,  let  us  say,  of  a  certain  vibra- 
tory backward  and  forward  motion  imparted  by 
one  cell  and  with  a  certain  rotary  motion  im- 
parted by  another  cell.  In  this  way  we  might 
represent  in  the  physical  terms  how  this  one 
central  particle  could  unify  thru  itself  the  vari- 
ous motions  received  from  the  many  different 
brain-cells,  and  thus  could  be  able  to  reflect  back 
to  the  brain  a  single  type  of  motion  synthesized 
from  all.  Of  course  the  above  must  be  regarded 
as  only  a  very  crude  way  of  representing  the 
functions  of  a  conscious  self.  But  perhaps  it  will 
do  to  illustrate  the  point  that,  supposing  such 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  31 

consciousness-units  (which  you  may  call  selves 
or  souls  or  by  whatever  other  name)  to  exist 
separately  from  corporeal  bodies,  then  the  fact 
that  they  could  be  useful  to  living  beings  might 
in  the  course  of  time  result  in  this :  that  if  there 
could  be  evolved  upon  the  earth  organisms  able 
to  draw  these  selves  to  them,  as  boats  upon  the 
sea  are  drawn  into  whirlpools,  then  necessarily 
the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  would  account 
for  the  existing  fact  that  the  organized  creatures 
which  inhabit  the  world  are  the  creatures 
equipped  to  draw  to  them  consciousnesses. 

The  feeling  that  even  inanimate  objects  are 
motived  by  their  own  volition,  not  only  explains 
the  attitude  of  savages  toward  the  world  around 
them,  it  not  only  explains  their  curious  religious 
customs  and  their  willingness  to  make  sacrifices 
to  the  lesser  and  greater  spirits  which  they  feel 
to  inhabit  the  river  which  may  rush  down  and 
overwhelm  their  canoe,  and  the  sun  in  heaven 
which  they  recognize  as  the  source  of  warmth  and 
light.  Animism  also  gives  rise  to  those  proced- 
ures which  we  include  under  the  name  magic. 
The  most  simple  form  of  magic  is  the  endeavor 
to  cause  good  or  evil  to  distant  persons  by  sub- 
jecting to  good  or  evil,  figures,  likenesses  of  these 
persons.  It's  roughly  true  that  like  things  tend 
to  act  in  like  ways,  similar  things  tend  to  ex- 
perience similar  feelings,  etc.  If  one  knows  how 
a  tawny  giraffe  will  behave,  he  can  guess  pretty 
well  how  a  black  giraffe  will  behave.  If  the  small 


32  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

cherries  are  devoured  by  birds,  probably  the  large 
cherries  likewise  will  be  devoured  by  birds.  So 
the  savage  argues,  that  if  thru  the  clay  figure 
which  he  makes  to  look  like  his  enemy  he  thrusts 
his  spear,  then  a  spear  is  likely  and  in  a  similar 
way  to  pierce  his  real  enemy. 

We  show  you  herewith  a  snapshot  of  an  effigy 
of  the  Kaiser  being  guarded  by  a  French  soldier. 
You  see,  these  old  dispositions  still  continue  to 
work  their  effects  on  the  human  mind.  The  sol- 
dier, guarding  "Guillaume,"  of  course,  doesn't  be- 
lieve that  he  could  bring  any  real  misfortune  upon 
the  Kaiser  by  hitting  his  figure,  and  yet  to  mal- 
treat the  effigy  does  seem  to  afford  a  certain  satis- 
faction. The  primitive  man  took  such  things  a 
little  more  seriously;  that's  all.  You  remember 
how  in  the  fall  of  1917  the  people  in  Chicago  car- 
ried an  effigy  of  Mayor  Thompson  thru  the  city 
in  an  automobile  and  afterwards  publicly  burned 
it  to  show  their  disapprobation  of  his  tolerance 
of  the  former  American  principle  of  free  speech. 

Playing  up  this  almost  innate  superstition,  the 
medicine  men  of  savage  tribes  manage  to  per- 
suade such  of  their  dupes  as  have  any  enemy 
whom  they  wish  to  injure  that  they,  the  medicine 
men,  know  the  most  effective  means  of  insuring 
such  injury.  If  the  tribe  plans  to  go  on  the  war 
path,  the  medicine  men  are  called  into  council 
and  employ  their  magic  art  to  cause  sickness  to 
spread  among  the  foe.  Of  course  if,  by  coinci- 
dence, disease  does  spread  in  the  enemy's  camp, 


EFFIGY    OF   THE    KAISER. 


34  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

the  most  is  made  of  this  fact,  and  the  prestige  of 
the  medicine  men  rises  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
Here  is  the  true  origin  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  famous 
M.  A.  M.4  One  is  reminded,  too,  of  the  story  of  a 
clergyman  who  was  asked  "to  pray  for  Lucy 
Gray."  Regularly  the  prayers  of  the  congrega- 
tion went  up  for  her  until  one  day  the  pastor 
was,  by  the  same  parties  as  before,  told,  with 
thanks,  that  the  prayers  no  longer  were  required 
for  Lucy  Gray.  "Has  she  died?"  queried  the 
pastor?  "0,  no,  indeed,"  came  the  answer,  "she's 
won  the  steeplechase!"  He  became  the  most 
popular  pastor  in  the  history  of  the  parish. 

Particularly  are  shamans  in  vogue  for  the  cure 
of  diseases.  Since  time  immemorial,  certain 
types  of  disease  have  been  curable  thru  the 
agency  of  faith.  It's  no  matter  whether  the  faith 
be  reposed  in  the  "miracles"  performed  at  the 
Cathedral  of  Lourdes,  or  reposed  in  John  Alex- 
ander Dowie,  or  in  the  incantations  of  Christian 
Scientists,  or  in  the  presence  of  a  New  Thought 
healer,  or  in  bread-pills  administered  by  a  mod- 
ern medical  practitioner;  no  matter  whether  the 
faith  is  that  of  the  pilgrims  to  the  Temple  of 
Asculapius  in  Ancient  Greece,  or  still  earlier  tem- 
ples of  the  ancient  pagan  world,  or  finally  whether 
the  faith  is  that  imposed  in  the  primitive  medi- 
cine man.  The  cure  of  disease  seems  to  be  ef- 
fected with  equal  efficacy.  What  the  New 
Thot  healer  doesn't  happen  to  cure,  the  Christian 

4"Malicious  animal  magnetism." 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  35 

scientists  may,  and  the  man  on  whom  the  Chris- 
tian scientists  are  powerless,  may  get  the  bene- 
fit of  a  miracle  at  Lourdes,  and  whoever  gets  no 
action  at  Lourdes,  may  still  hope  for  benefits 
from  some  witch-doctor  from  the  negro  quarter. 

There  is  the  best  of  biblical  authority  for  de- 
moniac possession.  This  belief,  that  sick  per- 
sons were  suffering  from  the  ejection  from  their 
bodies  of  their  own  proper  souls,  and  habitation 
of  those  bodies  by  demons  who  had,  so  to  speak, 
"squatted"  in  the  vacated  premises,  is  now  so 
far  from  our  present  thinking  that  for  us  mod- 
erns it's  difficult  to  see  how  mankind  ever  held 
such  a  conviction.  Not  so,  however,  if  you  bear 
in  mind  certain  phenomena  which  still  remain 
somewhat  difficult  for  us  to  explain  scientifically. 
We  refer  to  that  general  group  of  psychoses 
known  as  hysterias,  neurosies,  comas,  etc.,  and 
to  epileptic  seizures.  Indeed,  Dr.  Hyslop  of  Bos- 
ton recently  told  the  writer  that  he  (Hyslop)  had 
reverted  to  the  theory  that  these  neurosies  are 
true  cases  of  spirit-possession ! 

What  is  more  natural  than  for  the  savage 
to  explain  as  due  to  the  agency  of  malevolent 
spirits  the  conduct  of  a  man  who,  suddenly  ceas- 
ing to  act  in  normal  fashion,  falls  upon  the 
ground,  writhes  in  apparent  agony,  foams  at  the 
mouth,  etc?  Have  you  ever  seen  a  group  of  epi- 
leptics gathered  together  in  a  room?  A  clinic 
where  several  of  them  are  assembled  is  a  very 
extraordinary  sight.  You'll  see  a  circle  of  these. 


36  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

persons  seated  in  the  waiting  room  as  calm  and 
dignified  as  anyone  else.  But  they  are  like  a  lot 
of  quiescent  geysers  in  the  Yellowstone  National 
Park,  when  it  isn't  time  for  them  to  erupt.  Then, 
suddenly,  with  even  less  warning  than  those  gey- 
sers would  give,  one  or  more  of  the  persons  pres- 
ent will  perhaps  throw  back  his  head  and  laugh 
hysterically  for  exactly  six  minutes,  or  whatever 
his  particular  time-interval  may  be,  and  then  be- 
come quiet  and  dignified  again  just  as  suddenly. 
In  the  meantime,  some  other  party  may  enter 
upon  a  violent  crying  fit,  and  after  the  seizure  has 
passed  away  and  the  period  of  quiescence  that 
succeeds  it  has  passed  away  also,  another  such 
fit  will  seize  the  person.  We  knew  of  a  case,  a 
boy,  who  was  always  a  very  good  child  and  espe- 
cially very  affectionate  and  kind  to  his  mother, 
only  at  intervals  of  about  two  weeks,  he  would  be 
seized  with  an  almost  homicidal  attack,  would  as- 
sault his  mother,  would  pick  up  a  hatchet  and  at- 
tack furniture  or  even  attack  persons,  and  would 
simply  run  amuck  for  a  short  time.  Then  he 
would,  of  his  own  accord,  become  again  perfectly 
good  and  sweet  for  another  two  weeks. 

When  in  a  savage  tribe  such  a  seizure  would 
take  place,  the  medicine  man  would  be  called 
in.  The  latter  would  go  through  various  weird 
ceremonies,  the  epileptic  seizure  would  pass  off, 
and  the  medicine  man  would  receive  the  credit 
for  effecting  a  wonderful  cure.  It  is  just  as  to- 
day; if  you  get  a  cold  in  the  head  you  take  pills 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  37 

for  it,  and  when  the  cold,  through  the  natural 
course  of  nature,  has  passed  off,  you  recommend 
the  wonderful  medicine  to  all  your  friends. 

Hysterias  have  pretty  well  been  shown  by  psy- 
choanalysts to  be  by-products  of  sexuality;  and 
in  the  case  of  certain  comas,  etc.,  Freud  and  other 
writers  of  this  school  have  made  out  a  very 
strong  case.  They  have  shown,  too,  that  the 
phenomena  of  hypnotism  must  be  diagnosed  sim- 
ilarly. The  effect  of  hypnotism  in  religion  we 
shall  discuss  in  Chapter  II. 

The  illogical  dogmatism  of  religious  people 
sometimes  reminds  one  of  the  Scotchman  who 
maintained  that  all  the  greatest  writers  had  been 
Scots.  "What  about  Shakespeare,"  someone 
asked,  "he  wasn't  Scotch,  was  he?"  "Weel,"  re- 
plied the  daughty  highlander,  "Shakespeare's  tal- 
ents would  justify  the  supposeetion  that  he  was." 

Three  years  ago  we  found  ourselves  in  Java, 
where  a  great  mixture  of  superstitions  were  to 
be  studied.  At  Buitenzorg,  all  evening  the  peo- 
ple were  helping  the  Chinese  element  among  them 
celebrate  a  sort  of  left-over  New  Year's.  Many 
merchants  entertained  the  populace  with  native 
dancers  and  players  on  the  "gamelong." 

The  dancers  sometimes  by     the     masks    they 
wore,  and  in  their  attitudes,  imitated  the  witch  or 
spirit  figures  that  are  embroidered  on  their  batic^ 
work. 

But  for  that  matter,  the  bible  definitely  stands 
for  belief  in  witches.  Manasseh  "used  enchant- 


38  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ments,  and  used  witchcraft,  and  dealt  with  a  fa- 
miliar spirit,  and  with  wizards."3  Isaiah  speaks 
of  "Wizards  that  peep  and  mutter.""  "Thou 
shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."7  "A  man  also  or 
a  woman  that  hath  a  familiar  spirit,  or  that  is  a 
wizard,  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."7 

A  distinctly  Eastern  belief,  that  the  material 
world  is  an  illusion,  and  that  nothing  truly  exists 
but  ideas,  is  finding  its  way  into  the  west.  Thomas 
Reid  (1710-1796)  combated  this  pretty  effective- 
ly. His  points  were  that  (1)  the  actual  percep.- 
tion  of  an  object  is  clear  and  steady  compared 
to  mere  imagining  of  it,  and  contrasts  with 
"knowledge  about,"  (2)  Our  belief  always  varies 
with  clearness  (likeness  to  near  perception),  for 
eye-witnesses  are  most  credited  in  a  courtroom, 
and  even  skeptical  philosophers  as  a  matter  of 
fact  do  credit  their  senses  in  the  very  act  of  pick- 
ing out  an  object  in  order  to  dispute  whether  or 
not  it  has  a  real  existence;  and  (3)  Reasons  never 
make  sense-perceptions  more  irresistible  than 
they  previously  were. 

Perhaps  the  best  argument  of  all  is  that  if  ma- 
terial-objects are  only  errors  of  mind,  we  never 
could  experience  surprise.  What  is  the  philosophy 
under  discussion  but  a  refusal  to  look  facts  in 
the  face?  There's  an  illustration  to  be  had  from 
the  intellectual  world  today,  so  ludicrously  ex- 


SII  Coron.   33:6. 
elsa.  8  :19. 
'Ex.   22:18. 
"Lev.   20:27. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  39 

treme  that  it  would  have  astonished  our  grand- 
parents more  than  would  the  wireless  telegraph 
or  an  airship.  Who'd  have  predicted  that  the 
age  in  which  Science,  a  system  of  thinking  that's 
tacitly  materialistic,  has  justified  its  essential 
soundness,  would  be  the  age  to  revive  the  denial 
that  a  material  universe  exists. 

"I  was  told,"  said  Pundita  Ramabai,9  "on  com- 
ing to  New  York  that  a  new  philosophy  was  being 
taught  in  the  United  States;  but  when  I  asked 
what  its  teachings  were  I  recognized  it  as  being 
the  same  philosophy  that  has  been  taught  my 
people  for  four  thousand  years.  It  has  wrecked 
millions  of  lives  and  caused  immeasurable  suffer- 
ing and  sorrow  in  my  land,  for  it  is  based  upon 
selfishness,  and  knows  no  sympathy  or  compas- 
sion." 

The  last  phrase  of  this  accusation  would  seem 
to  accord  at  least  with  the  words,  "Sympathy  with 
sin,  sorrow,  and  sickness  would  dethrone  God  as 
Truth"10. 

"The  Los  Angeles  Times,  one  morning  last 
August,  published  the  details  of  the  arrest  of  one 
of  our  citizens  who  had  allowed  a  horse  to  suffer 
acutely  from  colic,  explaining  that  he  was  giving 
the  horse  treatment.  It  is  reported  by  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals  that  the 
horse  in  its  awful  suffering  had  beaten  both  sides 
of  its  head  upon  the  ground  until  they  were  raw, 

The  noted  helper  of  the  "little  widows"  in  Bombay,  India. 
10Harker,    P.   43.   Dr.  J.   M.    Buckley,    North   American    Review,   July, 
1901,    P.   34. 


40  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

when  a  little  medicine  from  a  veterinary  surgeon 
would  probably  have  brought  instant  relief.  The 
horse  died.  If  a  man  or  woman  is  foolish  enough 
to  apply  the  false  teachings  to  himself,  I  suppose 
in  this  free  country  he  will  have  to  be  allowed 
to  play  the  fool;  but  when  innocent  little  chil- 
dren and  enfeebled  old  people  and  defenseless 
dumb  brutes  are  victimized  by  this  senseless  and 
inhuman  fanaticism,  then — " 

While  responsible  for  much  neglect  of  suffering 
and  for  many  deaths,  this  religion  has  been  a  true 
help  to  many  nervous  invalids  who,  by  repeated 
iteration  of  its  high  priestess'  book,  have  been 
able  to  induce  in  themselves  a  conviction  that  her 
phrases  make  sense,  are  logically  acceptable,  and 
remove  or  heal  every  malady. 

On  June  14,  1914,  Mr.  Voliva,  successor  to 
John  Dowie  and  now  the  head  of  Zion  City,  ful- 
minated in  an  amusing  way  against  the  cults  in 
a  lecture  given  at  Zion  City.  He  took  a  long  time 
to  get  started,  as  he  had  to  tell  the  audience  how 
he  had  stood  at  the  head  of  his  class  in  logic,  how 
he  had  six  sheepskins  from  different  universities, 

and  knew  a  lot  more  about  than  the  devil 

himself,  who,  he  said,  wrote  it.  He  also  sent  a 
good  many  people  out  of  the  hall,  by  his  repeated 
use  of  the  words,  "liar,"  "hypocrite,"  and  other 
vulgarisms,  but  once  started  he  was  clever. 

"This  table  is  an  illusion,  but  when  it  comes  to 
buying  their  book,  there  isn't  any  illusion  about 


"Dr.  C.  E.  Locke,  Eddyism,  p.  22. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  41 

that ;  you've  got  to  come  over  with  the  real  cash. 

"Christ's  disciples  say  he  was  dead,  but  he  was 
fooling  them  all  the  time, — while  he  was  in  the 

tomb  he  was  demonstrating  .  (This  after 

quoting  from  Mrs.  E.  to  the  effect  that  Christ 
only  "seemed  to  die.")  Hitting  one  of  his  follow- 
ers on  the  back,  Voliva  exclaimed:  "What's  the 
matter?  This  is  just  nothing  hitting  nothing!" 
After  quoting  from  Mrs.  E.  to  the  effect  that  it 
isn't  exercise  that  strengthens  the  arm,  but  only 
the  directing  of  mind  upon  it  "for  a  trip-hammer 
is  not  strengthened  by  the  use  it  gets,"  Voliva 
offered  next  time  to  bring  a  trip-hammer  up  on 

the  stage  and  let  all  the ists  in  the  audience 

direct  their -minds  upon  it,  and  see  whether  it 
would  grow.  (This  would  be  an  absolutely  fair 
test  of  their  contentions.) 

Quoting  from  Mrs.  E.,  "If  a  man  had  as  little 
of  mortal  mind  as  a  lobster,  he  could  grow  a  new 
arm  in  place  of  one  cut  off  as  readily  as  a  lobster 
can  grow  a  new  claw." 

"Here's  one  for  the  women.  Page  141,  Science 
and  Health :  "We  shall  always  continue  to  be  beau- 
tiful, when  mortal  mind  so  decrees." 

"The  sensation  of  sickness  and  sin  exists  only 
in  mortal  mind."  Page  107. 

"From  human  belief  comes  the  reproduction 
of  the  species,  we  are  male  or  female  according 
as  we  think."  Science  and  Health,  Page  411.  "If 
God  is  all  and  all  is  God,  then  God  is  an  illusion, 


42  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

isn't  he?  (i.  e.,  since  "All"  must  include  even 
"mortal  mind.") 

We've  been  warned  that  this  chapter  is  against 
"good  taste,"  and  will  offend  many  earnest  peo- 
ple's feelings.  But  the  classifying  as  "bad  taste" 
of  every  utterance  which  strikes  at  the  Eternal 
Hypocrisies  is  a  dangerous  ruse  of  reactionism, 
which  honest  men  must  expose  and  defy,  and 
while  we  apologize  to  everyone  whose  tender  toes 
we  tramp  on  we'll  continue  to  trample  on  what 
obstructs  the  path  to  truth.  If  the  beautiful 
cathedral  shelters  falsehood's  sharpshooters,  the 
beautiful  cathedral  must  fall. 

"Some  people  thoughtlessly  say,  if  it  does  any 
good,  why  not  let  it  alone?  but  this  is  a  danger- 
ous and  illogical  position;  if  in  approving  any- 
thing that  seems  to  be  good,  we  lend  our  appro- 
bation and  support  to  dangerous  untruths  and  a 
mass  of  unmoral  and  immoral  teachings.  Taking 
opium  may  do  some  good  when  one  is  in  pain, 
but  because  of  the  danger  of  fastening  a  deadly 
habit,  morphine  is  prescribed  with  the  greatest 
care.  It  is  no  sign  that  an  entire  system  is  good 
because  here  and  there  some  noble  principles  may 
be  found  in  it.  There  may  be  some  good  in 

ism,  but  behind  the  false-face  of  good,  there 

is  imposture,  lying,  and  grossest  self-conceit; 
therefore  a  brave  man  cannot  let  half-truths  and 
untruths  alone ;  it  must  be  assailed ;  it  will,  in  the 
end  be  driven  out;  to  let  it  alone  is  a  confession 
of  weakness."12 


J-Dr.   C.   E.   Locke,   Eddyism   P.   50. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  43 

There's  a  duty  of  denial  as  well  as  an  abuse  of 
it;  a  public  duty  as  well  as  a  private  duty  in  re- 
fusing what  is  contrary  to  self-interest  and  the 
general  welfare.  The  Doctor  finds  himself  con- 
fronted with  it  when  some  new  nostrum  or  turtle- 
serum  is  being  foisted  upon  the  public  and  adver- 
tised by  newspaper  syndicates.  A  calm  study  of 
alleged  cures  convinces  him  that  it's  a  fake,  but 
if  he  raises  his  voice  in  denunciation,  a  thousand 
angry  throats  will  revile  (alas!  historically  too 
true)  "the  intolerance  of  the  medical  profession." 

The  psychologist  finds  himself  hailed  as  a 
brother  by  all  manner  of  well-meaning  tho  hope- 
lessly deluded  dabblers  in  the  "occult,"  and  is 
expected  to  countenance,  by  at  least  the  duplicity 
of  a  polite  silence,  what  from  experience  he  recog- 
nizes as  typical  forms  of  delusion;  and  not  to 
smile  at  the  most  disgraceful  fabrications  of  old 
ladies'  brains — or  be  scorned  as  "materialistic," 
"narrow,"  and  "unwilling  to  be  convinced."  The 
scientist  in  every  field  is  brought  by  his  researches 
to  conclusions  on  the  great  metaphysical  ques- 
tions that  shake  the  world,  but  awed  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  University  that  employs  him,  and 
which  too  frequently  guages  its  own  duty  by  the 
delicate  barometer  of  income  and  bequests  he  con- 
tents himself  with  publishing  the  crudest  facts  of 
his  discoveries  and  makes  but  faint  complaint 
when  they're  "interpreted"  by  some  Bergson  into 
a  denial  of  the  very  basis  of  science. 


44  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

The  oriental  doctrine  of  reincarnation  now  so 
much  in  vogue  relies  for  proof  mainly  upon  two 
supposed  facts:  (1)  It  satisfies  our  sense  of  the 
universe  being  moral,  and  (2)  we  often,  walking 
into  a  strange  room,  feel  a  sudden  sense  of  having 
been  there  before  when  in  this  present  life  it's 
impossible  we  should  have  been. 

The  argument  for  the  assumed  "morality  of  the 
universe"  is :  "The  Cosmos  is  orderly ;  like  causes 
give  like  effects,  therefore,  we're  forced  to  believe 
that  all  good  or  evil  fortunes  somehow,  some- 
where, sometime,  were  justly  earned."  True  that 
the  universe  is  orderly,  but  this  only  proves  that 
good  and  evil  fortunes  were  caused ;  not  that  they 
were  "justly  earned;"  there's  an  immense  gulf  be- 
tween the  respective  hypotheses  of  universal 
Causality  and  universal  Justice.  The  former  has 
been  established  as  an  absolute  truth,  by  deduc- 
tion from  repeated  experiments.  The  latter  fails 
by  this  method  to  be  established,  as  it  is,  in  fact, 
disproved  to  be  more  than  roughly  and  generally 
true.  Since  it's  evidently  false  that  we  get  strict- 
ly and  accurately  our  deserts  in  this  world,  the- 
ology has  postulated  a  world  hereafter,  where 
who  can  say  but  there  may  be  hells  and  heavens 
— and  has  appealed  to  the  feeling  each  of  us  has 
of  an  innermost  indivisible  self  which  when  its 
every  tangible  embodiment  has  rotted  away  shall 
still  survive. 

Call  them  "souls"  if  you  will,  these  indivisible 
•selves,  but  remember  always  that  giving  a  thing 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  45 

a  name  doesn't  really  explain  What  it  is.  Avoid 
assuming,  too,  that  there's  any  evidence  of  "souls" 
having  a  capacity  for  an  independent  intellectual 
life  when  not  en  rapport  with  a  mechanically 
operating  brain.  On  the  contrary,  we've  direct 
proof  that  at  least  a  large  number  of  mental  func- 
tions depend  absolutely  upon  the  activity  of  spe- 
cific cerebral  organs.  Not  so  easily  can  we  just- 
ify the  existence  of  sin  and  things  to  cry  about. 

This  leads  us  to  give  some  ill-merited  atten- 
tion to  that  venerable  apology  for  all  evils  that 
"unless  we  had  the  experience  of  overcoming  ill, 
we  couldn't  enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  mastery,  nor 
the  strength  of  character  that  comes  thru  moral 
conquest,"  or  that  "evil  is  necessary  to  purify 
us."  But  if  we  know  nothing  of  that  particular 
satisfaction,  the  joy  of  conquest,  why  should  we 
ever  miss,  or  crave  it,  or  be  imperfectly  satisfied 
without  it?  Or  of  what  use  is  purity  except  in 
a  world  where  evil  exists  ?  Seriously,  out  of  your 
own  acquaintance,  reader,  are  the  forceful  indi- 
viduals you  have  known  so  much  happier,  or 
mayn't  some  shiftless  southern  darky  put  them 
all  to  shame  when  it  comes  to  sheer  enjoyment  of 
life?  The  cold  facts  of  experience,  always  the 
ultimate  arbiter  of  any  theory,  are  dead  against 
the  pious  hypothesis  that  the  suffering  and  temp- 
tation in  the  world,  thru  struggles  and  character 
building,  become  the  source  of  more  happiness 
than  they  take  away.  The  writer  has  traveled 
rather  extensively  over  the  world,  and  has  found 


46  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

that  what's  true  of  individuals  is  equally  true  of 
races  of  men — the  happiest  he  has  encountered 
anywhere  are  the  easy-living,  characterless  peo- 
ples of  the  Malay  Archipelago — particularly  the 
Javanese.  There's  no  moral  justification  for  the 
existence  of  suffering  and  "sin"  or  "error." 

This  problem  of  the  ultimate  injustice  of  things 
is  postponed  merely,  not  solved,  by  the  Oriental 
doctrine  of  Karma.  You  ask,  "Why  do  I  who 
am  so  good,  suffer  more  privations  than  Smith, 
who's  so  wicked?"  The  Eastern  sages  trium- 
phantly answer,  "It  were  indeed  outrageous,  save 
that  in  a  former  life  it  must  have  been  you  who 
were  wicked  and  Smitty  who  was  good."  You 
come  back  with,  "But  why  was  I  wicked  and 
Smith  good?"  They  parry  this  with  the  reply, 
"Because  in  a  still  earlier  existence  than  that  one, 
you  were  perhaps  still  more  evil  yet  than  Smith." 
You  follow  up  with,  "But  why  did  I  ever  start 
differently  from  the  way  Smith  started?"  Your 
Oriental  philosopher,  if  he's  frank  (in  Asia  this 
word  is  purely  a  relative  term)  here  will  profess 
to  misunderstand  your  query;  and  so  ends  an 
idle  discussion.  Otherwise  he  begs  the  question 
by  means  of  endless  rigmarole  about  the  inbreath- 
ing and  outbreathing  of  the  Brahman,  but  never 
"gets  down  to  brass  tacks"  on  the  question  of 
how  our  sense  of  justice  is  to  be  satisfied  by  know- 
ing merely  that  the  Brahman  does  so  breathe, 
without  any  satisfactory  fundamental  reason  why 
it  must  be  so.  The  secret  of  the  superior  subtlety 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  47 

of  the  Eastern  philosophy  over  the  Western  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  presents  a  greater  number  of 
mazes  in  which  you  can  lose  track  of  the  unan- 
swerable questions  before  your  instructor  has 
to  confess,  "I  don't  know."  In  fact,  he  may,  as 
a  final  resort,  declare  that  to  understand  the  great 
truths  of  which  he  and  a  few  other  adepts  alone 
are  in  possession,  you  first  must  prepare  your 
intellect  thru  years  of  practicing  Yoga.  This 
dodge  is  one  that  the  Theosophists  particularly 
affect,  whom  we  have  with  us  also  in  America. 
No,  dear  reader,  the  Eastern  philosophy  is  as 
utterly  bankrupt  as  the  Western  when  asked  to 
disprove  that  in  the  last  analysis  sin  or  virtue, 
folly  or  wisdom  (and  consequently,  of  course,  pain 
and  joy)  are  alotted  ultimately  as  by  a  throw  of 
the  dice.  The  thing  important  to  recognize  is 
that  the  greatest  true  fortune  is  greatness  of 
spirit,  and  that  the  worst  misfortune  is  petty 
egoism.  On  merely  metaphysical  grounds,  we  re- 
peat there's  no  justifying  the  existence  of  sin  and 
"error." 

If,  "without  a  brain,  the  'soul'  is  without  mem- 
ory, without  perception  and  without  reason,"  im- 
portant correlaries  follow.  It's  evident  that  all 
post-mortem  punishments  or  rewards  for  a  soul 
benefit  of  power  to  remember  for  what  it  was 
being  punished  or  rewarded,  are  ridiculous.  It's 
equally  plain  that  our  conduct  while  we  are  liv- 
ing upon  this  earth  is  unlikely  to  add  to  our  souls 
any  accretions  everlasting  of  importance ;  whether 


48  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

accretions  of  wisdom,  or  of  superiority  to  low 
desires,  or  of  ennobling  traits  of  character,  or 
anything  whatsoever.  Nor  is  it  reasonable  that 
our  conduct  (through  "Karma,"  etc.,)  affect  for 
better  or  for  worse  the  state  in  which  we  shall 
be  re-incarnated  (if  we  are  to  be).  Our  present 
conduct,  indeed,  may  make  this  a  worse  or  a  bet- 
ter world  to  be  born  into,  when  our  chance  for 
that  comes  around  again,  but  the  resulting  likeli- 
hood of  betterment  to  our  own  condition  would 
be  mighty  slight.  Therefore,  these  facts  ap- 
preciated by  a  majority  of  mankind  (as,  unless 
false,  they  sooner  or  later  must  come  to  be) ,  will 
necessitate  profound  alterations  in  our  methods 
of  seeking  to  induce  mankind  to  be  good. 

Hereto,  philosophical  systems  have  concerned 
themselves  largely  with  an  attempt  to  show  that 
we  live  in  a  moral  universe,  i.  e.,  one  in  which, 
in  the  long  run,  the  evil  doer  can't  escape  the  full 
penalty  of  his  sins,  and  wherein,  on  the  other 
hand  virtue  inevitably  will  receive  its  full  reward. 
The  strong  psychological  effect  of  so  absolute  and 
sweeping  an  assertion,  is  lost,  or  hopelessly 
weakened,  so  soon  as  we  modify  it  to  even  a  slight 
degree,  by  admitting  it  to  be  (what  it  is)  only 
an  approximation  to  the  facts — a  general  truth, 
but  not  an  absolute,  or  necessary  truth.  Since 
current  philosophy  is  bound  to  be  "found  out," 
(indeed,  it  is  suspect  already),  is  there  no  use 
to  prepare  for  the  day  when  we  shall  have  to  be 
wholly  honest?  Isn't  it  a  wiser  plan  to  make  our 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  49 

ethical  teachings  in  schools  independent  of  alleged 
super-human  revelations  (which  at  best  leave  sin 
and  causes  for  crying  unexplained)  ? 

1.  The  absurdities  of  the  ancient  Jewish  at- 
tempt to  harmonize  the  presence  of  evil  with  the 
concept  of  a  moral  universe  are  well  emphasized 
by  Marshall  Gauvin.  "God  foresaw  and  .  .  .  hav- 
ing infinite  power  the  serpent  was  but  the  instru- 
ment he  used.  If  the  fall  occurred  God  was  re- 
sponsible. Is  there  any  wonder  that  Christianity 
is  dying,  when  that  religion  means,  if  it  means 
anything,  that  God  designed  the  ruin  of  the  hu- 
man race,  designed  a  hell  in  which  to  burn  his 
children,  and  designed  his  own  death  on  a  cross 
to  save  a  few!" 

Again,  "where  shall  we  look  for  proofs  of  God 
in  history?  ...  In  what  nation,  in  what  re- 
ligion, at  what  times  has  God  revealed  himself 
in  the  human  heart?  Can  the  history  of  any 
Christian  nation  be  pointed  to  as  a  shining  credit 
to  God?  Is  not  the  history  of  Christianity  a  long 
and  gruesome  story  of  ignorance,  persecution  and 
war?  Was  God  revealing  himself  in  the  human 
heart  when  scientists  languished  in  dungeons  and 
when  helpless  old  women  were  burned  as  witches  ? 
Can  it  be  that  God  revealed  himself  to  the  Mo- 
hammedan and  the  Jew  as  a  unity,  to  the  Catholic 
and  the  Presbyterian  as  a  trinity,  and  to  the  great 
world  of  science  as  the  unknowable — the  incon- 
ceivable? Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  if 
God  were  addressing  himself  to  the  human  heart, 


50  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

we  would  all  receive  and  understand  the  mes- 
sage?" 

We  have  already  noted  the  unsatisfactory  at- 
tempt to  justify  God  in  allowing  men  to  go  on 
sinning,  suffering,  on  the  ground  that  it  developes 
their  character.  "Honest  industry  in  a  hovel 
and  indulgent  idleness  in  a  stately  home,  virtue 
clothed  in  rags  and  vice  arrayed  in  silken  robes, 
truth  beneath  the  feet  of  priests  and  superstition 
made  sublime,  liberty  dying  on  the  scaffold  and 
tyranny  raised  to  the  monarch's  throne — these 
are  but  the  means  by  which  the  providence  of  God 
realizes  its  design.13 

Of  the  sense  of  recognition  we  sometimes  feel 
on  entering  a  place  in  which  we  couldn't  previous- 
ly have  been,  the  explanation  given  by  Tichener 
is  that  in  the  first  moment  our  conscious  mind  is 
absorbed  by  some  other  idea  but  our  unconscious 
is  taking  in  the  situation;  next  we  see  the  place 
with  our  conscious  mind  too,  and  the  previous 
unconscious  view  compounds  with  this  later  one 
so  as  to  give  a  feeling  of  recognition.  A  more 
usual  case  would,  it  seems  to  us  be  that  where 
certain  elements  in  a  present  situation  have  been 
experienced  before,  and  under  conditions  of  strong 
emotion,  so  that  the  strong  sense  of  recollection 
for  these  elements  is  superimposed  on  the  whole 
situation.  For  example  if  just  as  we  enter  a 
strange  town  a  certain  odor  were  to  blow  toward 
us  from  the  neighboring  orchards,  this  odor  might 


"Gauvln.  Marshall  G.,   Artile  in  The  Truth  Seeker,  July  26,   1913. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  51 

bring  into  our  unconscious  a  memory  of  a  certain 
summer  evening  when  the  orchards  were  in 
bloom ;  but,  especially  if  the  circumstances  of  that 
evening  involved  painful  recollections,  it  might 
well  be  that  all  would  be  repressed  from  the  con- 
scious mind  except  only  the  sense  of  familiarity, 
and  that  familiarity,  deprived  of  its  proper  refer- 
ence, would  superimpose  itself  upon  the  entire 
present  scene. 

It  is  profitable  for  us  to  examine  the  basis  of 
strange  religions,  because  all  religions  are  related 
phenomena  and  throw  light  upon  one  another. 
It  is  profitable  to  examine  history  for  references 
to  pagan  practices,  because  so  many  of  our  Chris- 
tian usages  are  taken  over  from  them  bodily.  R. 
Ellsworth  in  the  Truth  Seeker  of  December  28, 
1918,  has  an  article  on  this  topic.  "The  .  .  . 
historian,  Mosheim,  tells  us  that  in  the  second 
century  several  Christian  churches  imitated  the 
mysteries  of  Paganism.  The  profound  respect 
that  the  people  entertained  for  those  mysteries 
.  .  .  were  ...  a  motive  sufficient  to  give  a  mys- 
terious appearance  to  their  religion,  so  as  to  com- 
mand .  .  .  respect  with  the  public  .  .  .  For  this 
reason  they  called  mysteries  the  institutions  of  the 
Gospel,  particularly  the  Eucharist.  They  used  in 
this  rite,  and  in  that  of  baptism,  several  words 
and  ceremonies  consecrated  in  the  mysteries  of 
the  Pagans.  This  .  .  .  commenced  chiefly  in 
Egypt.  Clement  of  Alexandria  .  .  .  was  one  of 
those  who  contributed  the  most  to  this  usage, 


52  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

which  then  spread  to  the  Occident  when  Adrian 
had  introduced  the  mysteries  in  that  part  of  the 
empire.  Hence  .  .  .  customs  and  fables  of  Pa- 
gan mysteries  .  .  .  have  'been  perpetuated  in  that 
church  down  to  our  day.  In  the  initiation  to 
the  Pagan  mysteries  there  were  degrees;  so  in 
the  church  there  are  the  degrees  of  porter  or  door- 
keeper, acolyte,  reader  and  exorcist,  the  last  de- 
gree conferring  the  power  of  expelling  the  devil. 
The  ecclesiastical  ornaments  in  the  Church  are 
like  those  used  in  the  mysteries  of  the  Pagans. 
The  Vestals  kept  a  light  constantly  burning  in 
the  Pagan  temples;  so  a  lamp  is  kept  burning 
day  and  night  before  the  altar  in  ...  churches. 
Upon  the  altar  in  the  Pagan  temples  there  was  an 
image  of  the  god  Usiris  or  Bacchus,  and  the  em- 
blem of  an  aries  or  lamb;  so  upon  the  altar  in 
.  .  .  churches  there  is  a  tabernacle  in  which  God 
is  said  to  dwell,  and  the  door  of  the  tabernacle 
bears  a  representation  of  a  bleeding  lamb. 

"The  Pagans  solemnly  and  processionally  car- 
ried the  image  of  Osiris  or  Bacchus,  around  whose 
head  there  was  a  halo  representing  the  rays  of 
the  sun;  so  in  the  .  .  .  church  the  priests  pro- 
cessionally, and  with  great  pomp,  carry,  both  in 
the  aisles  of  the  churches  and  on  the  streets,  a 
wafer  which  they  call  God.  It  is  shaped  like  the 
disc  of  the  sun,  and  the  outside,  called  halo  or 
glory,  appears  like  the  sun's  rays.  The  Pagans 
did  not  permit  their  candidates  for  initiation 
to  assist  at  the  celebration  of  the  mysteries,  which 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  53 

t 

was  always  preceded  with  this  formula,  solemnly 
and  loudly  spoken  by  an  officer:  "Away  from 
here,  ye  profane  and  impious  men,  and  all  those 
whose  soul  is  contaminated  with  crimes!"  So, 
at  one  time  in  the  .  .  .  churches,  the  deacon  arose 
after  the  sermon,  turned  towards  the  assistant, 
and  ordered  the  catechumens  to  leave  the  church, 
because  the  celebration  of  the  mysteries  was  about 
to  commence — the  celebration  of  the  mass. 

"The  Pagans  initiated  the  candidates  near  the 
front  door  of  their  temples;  so  in  ...  churches 
the  baptismal  font  is  placed  near  one  of  the  en- 
trances. The  Pagans  initiated  candidates  chiefly 
on  the  eve  of  great  festivals ;  so,  in  the  .  .  .  church, 
catechumens  are  baptized  chiefly  on  the  eve  of 
Easter  and  Pentecost.  The  Pagans  believed  that 
initiation  made  them  holy;  so  the  .  .  .  church 
holds  that  baptism  remits  original  and  all  other 
sins  and  makes  men  holy.  The  Pagans  revered  in 
their  temples  the  statue  of  Pan,  in  whose  hands 
was  a  seven-pipe  flute ;  also  they  revered  emblems 
of  the  seven  planets;  likewise  the  .  .  .  church 
holds  the  doctrine  of  the  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  of  the  seven  sacraments.  In  the  month 
of  February  the  Pagans  celebrated  the  Luper- 
cales  and  the  feast  of  Proserpine;  so  the  Church 
.  .  .  celebrates  Candlemas-day.  .  .  The  Pagans 
celebrated  the  exaltation  of  the  virgo  or  virgin, 
the  sixth  sign  and  seventh  constellation  in  the 
ecliptic ;  and  the  Church  .  .  .  has  established  the 
feast  of  the  Assumption,  or  the  ascension  of  the 


54  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Virgin  Mary  to  heaven.  The  Pagans  made  sol- 
emn processions  in  honor  of  the  goddess  Ceres; 
so  the  .  .  .  Church  has  instituted  pompous  pro- 
cessions in  honor  of  the  Queen  of  heaven,  the 
Holy  Virgin. 

"When  in  the  .  .  .  century  the  Protestants 
shook  off  the  yoke  of  the  pope,  they  discarded 
many  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Romish  church,  but 
retained  enough  to  establish  an  identity  between 
the  reformed  practices  and  those  of  the  ancient 
Pagan  world.  Protestants  still  teach  the  mystery 
of  the  trinity,  the  mystery  of  the  incarnation,  the 
mystery  of  the  new  birth  and  other  occult  notions, 
which  took  their  rise  in  Pagan  forms  of  belief  and 
usage,  and  are  in  no  sense  original  with  the  new 
religion. 

"Christians  now  celebrate  the  birthday  of 
Jesus  Christ,  without  apparently  any  realizing 
sense  that  .  .  .  before  .  .  .  Christianity  .  .  .  the 
twenty-fifth  of  December  was  .  .  .  held  sacred 
.  .  .  in  memory  of  the  nativity  of  the  god  Sol,  or 
the  sun,  which  regularly  occurred  at  the  winter 
solstice.  .  .  A  revelation  that  is  but  a  refined  re- 
production of  what  ancient  peoples  conjured  up 
...  is  plainly  a  human  product  .  .  .  Mysteries 
imply  secrecy ;  what  then  is  the  value  to  mankind 
of  a  revelation  that  does  not  reveal? 

"Christianity  is  a  cemetery  of  dead  faiths;  it 
is  the  opium  of  the  people  .  .  .  and  the  sooner 
men  free  themselves  from  the  influence  of  its 
hierophants  and  priestly  intercessors,  the  sooner 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  55 

they  will  learn  to  value  man's  autonomous  ef- 
forts." 

As  regards  our  own  position,  we'll  say  frankly 
that  we're  atheist.  How  in  the  world  can  a  Chris- 
tian, for  instance,  who  professes  to  believe  in 
the  new  testament,  comply  with  (what  the  "Melt- 
ing Pot"  has  given  us)  : 

"Some  tests  for  true  believers: 

"Now,  I  want  to  show  the  Christian  by  his  own 
standard,  the  New  Testament,  just  what  his 
chances  of  heaven  are  worth  (Mark  xvi,  16-19)  : 
"He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved ; 
but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.  And 
these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe :  In  my 
name  shall  they  cast  out  devils;  they  shall  speak 
with  new  tongues;  they  shall  take  up  serpents; 
and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not 
hurt  them ;  they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and 
they  shall  recover." 

"Now,  my  dear  Christian  friend,  step  forward. 
In  addition  to  a  check  which  will  secure  for  you 
a  crown  and  a  harp,  I  will  give  you  one  hundred 
dollars  for  the  first  lively,  healthy,  robust  devil 
that  you  will  cast  out.  If  you  have  never  learned 
anything  but  plain  English,  I  will  give  you  another 
hundred  dollars  if  you  will  utter  a  few  sentences 
in  Greek,  Hebrew,  or  Sanscrit.  And  if  you  will 
handle  a  good  big  rattlesnake  without  mittens 
you  shall  be  rewarded  with  his  rattles;  they  will 
prove  a  fine  accompaniment  to  your  harp.  Now, 
I  will  take  a  little  strychnine — just  what  will  lie 


56  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

on  the  point  of  a  small  penknife — and  drop  it  into 
a  little  water.  Don't  tremble  now,  because  if  you 
take  it  and  pull  through  all  right  you  will  not 
only  escape  hell,  but  will  secure  heaven.  Remem- 
ber the  promise  in  the  New  Testament,  and  down 
with  it ;  if  you  have  faith  like  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,  there  is  not  the  least  bit  of  danger.  Web- 
ster says  that  to  be  sick  is  to  be  affected  with 
any  kind  of  disease.  Now,  most  people  die  of 
some  kind  of  disease.  But  why  should  any  one 
die  of  disease  when  the  simple  laying  on  of  hands 
would  cause  one  to  recover? 

"Either  there  are  no  believers,  or  else  the  prom- 
ise is  not  worth  a  penny  whistle.  Now,  Chris- 
tian, how  is  it?  If  you  can't  heal  the  sick,  you 
don't  believe;  you  must  go  to  hell  sure.  Allow- 
ing the  promise  to  be  good,  and  that  every  Chris- 
tian is  a  believer,  all  the  doctors'  diplomas  in 
America  would  not  be  worth  a  rupee.  Unless  these 
Christians  are  great  liars,  they  are  praying  for 
my  conversion  every  day.  But  is  there  a  sane 
man  who  believes  that  any  Christian  can  exhibit 
these  signs  any  more  than  I  can?  Consequently, 
his  chances  of  heaven  can  be  no  better,  and  I  am 
nothing  but  a  poor  Infidel,  whose  oath  would  not 
be  taken  in  a  court  of  justice  in  some  of  the  states 
in  this  Union,  and  who  has  been  loaded  with  a 
thousand  Christian  curses. 

"Of  all  the  countless  millions  who  have  ever 
been  born  not  one  ever  could  perform  these  mira- 
cles. Therefore  all  the  myriads  who  have  ever 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  57 

peopled  the  earth  have  been  brought  into  exist- 
ence only  to  be  damned." — John  Peck. 

"And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  be- 
lieve." Good ! 

"In  my  name  shall  they  cast  out  devils;  they 
shall  speak  with  new  tongues ;  they  shall  take  up 
serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing  it 
shall  not  hurt  them.  They  shall  lay  hands  on 
the  sick  and  they  shall  recover." 

"Bring  on  your  believer!  Let  him  cast  out  a 
devil.  I  do  not  ask  for  a  large  one.  Just  a  little 
one  for  a  cent.  Let  him  take  up  serpents.  'And 
if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing  it  shall  not  hurt 
them.'  Let  me  mix  up  a  dose  for  the  believer 
and  if  it  does  not  hurt  him  I  will  join  a  church." — 
Ingersoll. 

"The  reason  that  Christianity  does  so  little 
harm  is  because  it  is  so  little  believed." — R.  C. 
Adams. 

In  Bombay  one  morning  at  about  7 :30,  we  went 
out  to  the  Parsi  Towers  of  Silence,  where  mem- 
bers of  this  sect  when  dead,  are  exposed  to  be 
devoured  by  vultures!  They  don't  let  you  get 
very  close  to  the  Towers,  but  they  have  a  model 
by  means  of  which  they  show  you  how  the  dead 
bodies  are  placed  in  sort  of  basins  provided  for 
them.  The  basins  having  little  irrigating  ditches 
leading  off  from  them  to  drain  away  blood  and 
other  fluids  when  the  vultures  come  in  to  do  their 
dirty  work.  We  arrived  here  at  the  same  time 
that  a  lot  of  Native  Congresses  were  being  held 


58  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

and  have  been  chasing  'round  to  a  lot  of  these. 
One  night  we  attended  a  big  reception  given  by 
Lady  Tata,  and,  there  found  a  woman  whom  we 
had  been  quite  anxious  to  meet,  Mrs.  Annie  Bes- 
ant.  She  is  short,  with  nearly  white  hair,  force- 
ful masculine  face  and  dressed  always  in  a  sim- 
ple white  silk  Mother  Hubbard.  She  wore  around 
her  neck  a  single  gold  ornament  of  beautiful  and 
intricate  workmanship.  We  couldn't  get  her  to 
talk  very  much  that  night,  but  next  day,  after 
we'd  heard  various  "hot-air  artists"  at  the  Mos- 
lem League  and  the  Social  Conference,  we  man- 
aged to  get  an  earful  of  her  eloquence.  She  is  a 
famous  orator.  She  spoke,  however,  not  on  the- 
osophy  which,  of  course,  was  what  we  wanted  to 
hear  her  talk  on,  but  on  the  betterment  of  the 
"little  widows"  and  abolition  of  the  greatest  curse 
of  present  day  India,  child  marriages. 

We  "scouted  about"  a  good  deal  to  Mission  So- 
cieties, Salvation  Army  Depots  and  Y.  M.  C.  A/s, 
to  talk  with  workers  in  those  lines  about  the  con- 
ditions of  the  masses  of  the  people.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  talks  we  had  was  with  the  Na- 
tive Secretary  of  the  local  Y.  M.  C.  A.  who  pre- 
sented to  us  in  a  very  interesting  light  the  Hindu 
attitude  toward  all  the  hodge-podge  of  Native 
and  Foreign  religions,  Hinduism,  Brahmanism, 
Buddhism,  Islam  and  Christianity  that  rubbed  el- 
bows in  this  country.  He  himself  seems  to  be 
deist;  and  we  imagined  that  that  is  what  the 
more  educated  Hindus  were.  He  started  a  while 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  59 

ago  a  school  to  teach  the  poorer  class  of  Natives 
and  prepare  them  to  get  a  little  better  living  for 
themselves,  as  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  here  is  more  par- 
ticularly for  Europeans  and  charges  rates  that 
are  beyond  the  reach  of  poorer  Natives  and  there 
is  a  deplorable  dearth  of  elementary  schools. 

On  the  day  before  Christmas  we  attended  a 
meeting  in  a  large  Pavilion  of  the  Arya  Samaj ; 
then  a  meeting  of  the  Bhattias. 

Many  people  who  are  so  greatly  impressed  with 
"spirit  phenomena"  might  find  their  explanation 
by  reading  in  the  Century  Magazine13  his  owners 
account  of  Roger,  "A  full  blooded  mongrel  of 
the  cocker-spaniel  persuasion,"  how  "he  could 
spell  anything  which  I  could  spell  without  being 
taught.  I  asked  for  Constantinople,  phthistic, 
penumonia,  and  for  problems  like  2x3-f-2 — 1.  He 
never  made  a  mistake.  Fractions  offered  no  dif- 
ficulties to  him.  He  selected  colors  correctly  the 
first  time  he  saw  them  and  made  change  as  quick- 
ly 'as  any  cashier."  Then,  compare  the  story  of 
"The  Behavior  of  Roger,"  by  Robert  M.  Yerkes. 
His  explanation  of  Roger's  powers  is  the  same, 
tho  as  he  says  the  process  isn't  "seen  by  the  ob- 
server when  Roger  is  in  practice  and  does  his  best. 
It  is  highly  probable  that  the  dog's  visual  sensi- 
tiveness to  movement  is  greater  than  ours." 

Upon  which  passage  E.  A.  Swift  makes  com- 
ments worth  quoting  at  some  length.  "Yerkes' 
conclusion  agrees  with  those  reached  in  the  in- 
vestigation of  'Der  Kluge  Hans,'  the  German 


60  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

horse  whose  wonderful  feats  in  reading,  spelling, 
giving  the  najnes  of  those  to  whom  he  had  been 
introduced,  and  solving  complex  arithmetical 
problems  involving  fractions  were  heralded 
round  the  world  a  few  years  ago.  Pfungst14  dis- 
covered that  clever  Hans  could  not  reply  correct- 
ly to  questions  when  the  answers  were  unknown 
to  the  questioner.  Fraud  was  climated  by  the 
fact  that  the  horse  answered  correctly  questions 
put  by  the  investigator  and  by  others  who  were 
only  interested  in  the  psychological  aspect  of  the 
performance.  The  success  of  the  investigator  in 
obtaining  correct  answers  also  proved  that  the 
movements  which  served  Hans  as  a  cue  were  in- 
voluntary. .  .  .  These  movements,  which  the  spec- 
tators did  not  detect,  were  observed  by  the  horse 
and  translated  into  appropriate  action.  So  he  could 
spell  any  word  which  the  questioner  could  spell, 
or  give  the  answer  of  difficult  problems  in  arith- 
metic by  pawing  with  his  hoof  according  to  the 
language  code  which  he  had  been  taught."15 

In  a  clipping  before  us*  George  Arliss,  actor, 
is  reported  as  saying: 

"A  most  astonishing  lot  of  Boston  people  ap- 
pear to  be  believers  in  spiritualism.  It  seems  to 
me  that  the  war  with  its  thousands  of  untimely 
deaths  has  caused  great  numbers  of  people  to 
grasp  desperately  at  the  idea  that  the  dead  hover 
around  us  and  try  to  communicate  with  us.  Sir 


14Prof.   Pfungst — Das    Pferd   des   Herrn   v.    Osten. 
l:'E.    A.    Swift— Youth    and   the    Race,    pp.    294,    295. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  61 

James  Barrie  in  The  Well  Remembered  Voice' 
has  dramatized  this  idea  and  since  I  have  been 
playing  it  here,  I  have  been  amazed  at  the  num- 
ber of  folks  who  have  written  me  discussing 
spiritualism."16 

That  this  movement  represents  anything  ex- 
alted is  questioned  by  David  Eccles  in  the  Truth 
Seeker : 

"The  crudest  form  of  materialism  I  know  is 
the  materialism  of  the  average  Spiritualist.  With 
him  (as  one  of  them  expresses  it)  'spiritual  things 
are  gross  matter  in  a  refined  state.' 

"Sane  thinking  requires  us  to  tie  ourselves  to 
rational  probabilities  drawn  from  experimental 
evidence.  That  one  form  of  matter  is  cruder  than 
another,  save  in  relation  to  our  own  needs,  is  a 
delusion.  It  is  doubtful  if  forces,  as  separate  en- 
tities, go  racing  over  the  universe. 

"Professor  Crookes  demonstrated  that  gases 
increase  their  amplitude  of  vibration  as  a  condi- 
tion of  vacuum  is  obtained  till  they  begin  to  move 
in  straight  lines  across  the  receptacle  and  their 
impingement  on  the  outer  glass  causes  it  to  glow 
with  light.  He  calls  this  'the  fourth  state  of 
matter.'  The  speed  of  the  atoms  is  enormous. 
As  spirits  are  supposed  to  move  with  the  speed 
of  light  or  thought,  this  fourth  state  of  matter 
Would  seem  to  be  their  condition.  Unfortunately, 
in  this  highly  sublimated  and  'spiritualized' 
state,  like  Cowper's  'John  Gilpin,'  they  could  not 


"January  25,   1919. 


62  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

stop  themselves  when  they  wanted  to,  but  if  ob- 
structed would  bound  back  with  the  same  resili- 
ency. To  get  living  rational  conditions  into  an- 
other world  we  are  compelled  to  build  it  on  ex- 
actly the  same  order  as  this  one,  with  birth, 
growth,  toil,  decay  and  death. 

"The  most  telling  indictment  against  the  claims 
of  Spiritualism  is  its  utter  sterility  and  confused 
Babel  of  statements.  It  has  revealed  nothing  and 
does  nothing  but  continue  the  old  bondage  to  a 
new  set  of  grasping  go-betweens,  who  begin  to 
call  themselves  'reverends.'  In  a  dark  cabinet 
it  claims  to  materialize  from  the  air,  faces, 
flowers  and  clothing;  but  it  never  made  a  potato 
to  feed  a  starving  child  or  a  garment  to  clothe 
its  nakedness.  No  medium  has  yet  told  the 
whereabouts  of  a  lost  explorer  or  located  an 
enemy's  mine  or  cannon.  It  has  not  added  to 
science  a  single  thought.  The  spirit's  relation 
to  the  body  is  presented  in  the  same  crude  terms 
as  was  thought  out  by  the  early  savage. 

"Dr.  Mary  Walker  insists  that  the  snakes  men 
see  in  delirium  tremens  are  real  spiritual  snakes. 
In  this  view,  man  is  not  alone  a  living  soul,  but 
a  colony  of  untold  millions  of  living  souls.  Every 
cell  is  animate  and  individualized.  It  does  its  own 
breathing  and  imbibes  its  own  food.  When  the 
power  to  oxidize  food  is  gone  the  phenomenon  of 
life  disappears.  Life  is  simply  one  form  of  the 
general  energy.  That  this  energy  carries  "the 
promise  and  potency  of  life"  under  all  conditions 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  63 

of  existence  is  not  only  believable,  but  forced  upon 
us  as  a  conclusion.  Evolution  denies  a  creative 
beginning  to  anything. 

"The  cells  do  not  all  die  together.  Cells  and 
whole  organs  can  be  incised  and  kept  living  after 
the  individual  is  dead.  Moreover,  the  ovaries  of 
a  dying  mother  may  be  cut  out  and  transplanted 
into  another  body,  and  brought  to  maturity  and 
fecundated  produce  offspring. 

"If  the  ovaries  had  been  cut  out  and  had  died 
before  the  mother,  would  they  continue  to  grow 
into  human  form  in  the  Summer  Land?  Spir- 
itualists insist  that  there  is  change  and  growth 
there.  A  Spiritualist  once  gravely  showed  me  an 
alleged  spirit  photograph  of  his  dead  daughter 
who  had  died  in  infancy.  The  photo  was  that 
of  a  young  lady.  I  said,  "Do  you  recognize  it?" 
"Not  positively,"  he  answered,  "for  she  has  grown 
to  be  a  young  woman  since  she  left  here."  There 
is  faith  for  you!  If  she  can  grow  from  a  cell 
form  to  a  young  woman,  she  can  complete  the 
cycle  and  go  to  old  age  and  death.  If  the  form 
and  organs  are  there,  all  the  other  phenomena  will 
be  there.  What  would  be  the  use  of  a  spiritual 
mouth,  ears,  nose  tongue  and  palate  except  to 
eat,  hear,  smell  and  taste  with  ? 

"Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox  assures  us  in  a  recent 
poem  that  when  she  dies  she  will  'run  and  run 
and  run'  till  she  finds  her  dead  mate  .  .  .  and 
she  no  doubt  thinks  she  will  find  him  dressed  as 


64  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

he  was.  If  she  delays  her  dying  too  long  he  may 
have  found  another  mate. 

"The  whole  conclusion  is  bristling  with  absurdi- 
ties. For  if  all  forms  of  life  have  spiritual  bodies 
and  carry  their  natures  with  them,  then  our 
bodies  will  carry  their  parasites  along  and  we 
shall  have  the  same  woes  and  pains  to  fight.  We 
cannot  think  of  spiritual  fish  without  thinking 
of  spiritual  waters,  nor  of  snakes  or  parasites 
without  their  proper  pabulum.  The  struggle  for 
food  will  exist  there  as  here,  and  the  survival  of 
the  fit  be  the  supreme  law.  In  other  words,  the 
spiritual  explanation  leaves  us  where  it  found  us, 
and  explains  nothing." 

To  similar  effect  is  a  criticism  in  the  same  ex- 
cellent paper  by  Donald  Grey17  of  a  book  by  one 
Severence : 

"One  great  point  they  overlook  is  the  fact  that 
man's  reason  being  but  a  part  of  nature,  neces- 
sarily the  thoughts  and  reasonings  of  man  can- 
not exceed,  or  reach  beyond  the  limits  of  nature. 
Man,  thinking  and  speaking,  is  actually  a  part  of 
nature  thinking  and  speaking  of  itself! 

"Sir  Oliver  Lodge  says  that  if  they  have  ma- 
terial bodies,  such  bodies  must  be  made  of  ether 
or  a  like  substance.  Now  can  you  imagine  a  mor- 
tal man  in  evolution,  with  a  man's  senses  and  in- 
telligence— with  the  ability  to  think  and  speak 
to  mortals  on  earth  by  'table-moving,  rappings, 
voices,  lights,'  directing  pencils  and  such  like  ab- 


17February    1,    1919. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  65 

surdities  as  claimed — in  a  body  made  of  ether! 
'It  is  unthinkable.' 

"We  all  know  that  a  man's  intelligence  and 
memory  cells  are  a  matter  of  brains ;  how,  then, 
can  his  intelligence  and  memory  survive  the  death 
of  his  brain?  Yet  this  impossibility  is  the  very 
test  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  and  others  suggest  as  the 
only  feasible  proof  of  the  genuine  survival  of  the 
spirit.  He  also  says  of  spiritism  that  it  is  "a 
universe  where  the  orinary  laws  of  matter  are 
inoperative!",  Did  anyone  ever  distinguish  be- 
tween ordinary  and  extraordinary  laws  in  the 
universe  of  nature? 

"One  writer  shows  the  weakness  of  his  reason- 
ing by  admitting  that  because  'certainly  every- 
one wishes  it'  (spirit  life)  that  is  'the  greatest  ar- 
gument in  its  favor!' 

"  'Professor  Crookes  thought  he  had  sufficient 
evidence  to  establish  man's  continuity  of  con- 
sciousness, and  he  said  so'  (says  Mr.  Severance), 
yet  with  all  the  public  confidence  and  hopes  placed 
in  a  scientist  of  his  eminence,  'when  judged  by 
results  he  was  repudiated'  in  other  words,  he 
failed  to  make  good  his  assertions.  So  did  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  who  admits  that  it  cannot  be  sat- 
isfactorily proven,  tho  he  himself  is  satisfied! 
One  of  the  great  weaknesses  of  spiritism — that 
tho  all  humanity  live  again  as  spirits,  yet  of  all 
these  myriads  only  a  'chosen  few'  .  .  .  can  com- 
municate !  This  is  about  as  bad  as  priest-craft. 

"Finally,  Mr.  Severance  upholds  the  study  of 


66  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

spiritism  amongst  thinkers  and  philosophers ;  but 
thinking  and  philosophy  can  never  elucidate  such 
a  purely  scientific  subject.  On  the  contrary,  I 
hold  that  its  study  and  belief  by  unscientific  minds 
have  pernicious  tendencies.  It  encourages  the 
charlatan  and  makes  ready  tools  of  the  credulous, 
as  does  religion." 

That  seances  can  be  turned  to  pecuniary  profit 
by  the  "insiders"  is  known  to  those  who've  been 
reading  the  accounts  of  the  intrigues  which  lead 
to  the  fall  of  the  Romanoff  dynasty;  or  to  those 
who  may  have  seen  in  the  San  Francisco  papers 
for  February  or  the  Chicago  Tribune  for  March, 
1908,17  the  account  of  Bartlett,  Dalzell,  Brown, 
Treadwell,  and  the  "spirits"  by  whose  aid  they 
defrauded  a  bank.  Today  we  stand  toward  spirit- 
ism in  somewhat  the  same  relation  that  Pagan 
Lowe  stood  toward  the  then  young  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity. Logic  has  little  power  to  check  it  be- 
cause its  nature  is  illogical  and  emotional. 

"Persons  with  habitual  hallucinations,  and  also 
the  inspired,  exhibit  these  states;  they  draw  the 
attention  of  the  crowd  to  themselves,  now  as  poet 
or  artist,  now  as  savior,  prophet,  or  founder  of  a 
new  sect.  The  genesis  of  the  peculiar  frame  of 
mind  of  these  persons  is  for  the  most  part  lost  in 
obscurity,"  hence  Jung18  contributes  the  follow- 
ing observations  on  the  case  of  a  so-called  spir- 
itualistic medium : 


"These  dates  are  to  the  best  of  our  remembrance. 
18Jungr — Collected    Papers    on    Analytical    Psychology,    Ch.    1    on    the. 
Psychology   and   Pathology   of   So-called  Occult  Phenomena. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  67 

Subject:  Miss  S.  W.,  15i/2  years  old  (1899- 
1900).  Paternal  grandfather,  a  clergyman 
"with  frequent  waking  hallucinations  (generally 
visions,  often  whole  dramatic  scenes  with  dia- 
logues," etc).  Paternal  grandmother,  at  20  went 
into  a  trance  for  three  days;  later  had  fainting 
fits,  followed  by  "brief  somnambulism  during 
which  she  uttered  prophecies."  The  mother  has 
an  inherited  mental  defect  often  bordering  on 
psychosis.  Other  relatives  were  either  odd,  pe- 
culiar characters,  or  hysterics  and  visionaries. 

Miss  S.  W.  is  slenderly  built,  skull  somewhat 
rachitic,  face  rather  pale,  eyes  dark  with  a  pe- 
culiar penetrating  look.  Her  preference  is  for 
handwork  and  day-dreaming.  "Often  absent- 
minded  ;  misread  in  a  peculiar  way  when  reading 
aloud.  .  .  There  were  no  other  abnormalities  .  .  . 
no  serious  hysterical  manifestations."  Her  father 
died  when  S.  W.  was  not  yet  grown  up.  She  was 
unhappy;  often  afraid  to  go  home;  her  interests 
were  limited,  also  her  knowledge  of  literature. 
When  she  began  to  take  an  interest  in  table-turn- 
ing, it  "was  discovered  that  she  was  an  excellent 
'medium.'  Some  communications  of  a  serious  na- 
ture arrived  which  were  received  with  great  as- 
tonishment. Their  pastoral  note  was  surprising. 
The  spirit  said  he  was  the  grandfather  of  the 
medium." 

The  first  attacks  of  somnambulism  took  place  in 
Jung's  presence.  S.  W.  became  cataleptic.  "In 
somnambulic  dialogues  she  copied  in  a  remark- 


68  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ably  clever  way  her  dead  relations  and  acquaint- 
ances, with  all  their  peculiarities  so  that  she  made 
a  lasting  impression  upon  unprejudiced  persons." 
There  were  attitudes  passionelles,  and  complete 
dramatic  scenes.  "She  then  made  use  exclusively 
of  a  literary  German  which  she  spoke  with  an 
ease  and  assurance  quite  contrary  to  her  usual 
uncertain  and  embarrassed,  manner  in  the  waking 
state." 

"In  addition  to  these  great  attacks  which 
seemed  to  follow  a  certain  law  in  their  course, 
S.  W.  produced  a  great  number  of  other  automa- 
tisms. Premonitions,  forebodings,  unaccountable 
moods  and  rapidly  changing  fancies  were  all  in 
the  day's  work.  ...  In  the  middle  of  a  lively 
conversation  S.  W.  became  quite  confused  and 
spoke  without  meaning  in  a  peculiar  monotonous 
way.  .  .  .  These  lapses  usually  lasted  but  a  few 
minutes.  .  .  .  Later  she  simply  said  They  are 
there  again,'  meaning  her  spirits.  .  .  .  The  hal- 
lucinations involved  all  the  sense  organs  equally. 
...  It  is  remarkable  with  what  curious  sincerity 
she  regarded  her  dreams.  .  .  .  She  was  unswerv- 
ingly convinced  of  the  reality  of  her  visions.  .  .  . 
She  once  said :  'I  do  not  know  if  what  the  spirits 
say  and  teach  me  is  true,  neither  do  I  know  if 
they  are  those  by  whose  names  they  call  them- 
selves, but  that  my  spirits  exist  there  is  no  ques- 
tion. I  see  them  before  me,  I  can  touch  them,  I 
speak  to  them  about  everything  I  wish,  as  natural- 
ly as  I'm  now  talking  to  you.  They  must  pe 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  69 

She  absolutely  would  not  listen  to  the  idea  that 
the  manifestations  were  a  kind  of  illness.  In 
time  .  .  .  three  of  her  brothers  and  sisters  like- 
wise began  to  have  hallucinations  of  a  similar 
kind." 

"This  particular  type  of  attack  with  the  com- 
plete visions  and  ideas  had  developed  in  the 
course  of  less  than  a  month,  but  never  afterwards 
exceeded  these  limits."  "She  is  fully  orientated 
to  the  external  world,  but  seems  to  stand  with  one 
foot,  as  it  were,  in  her  dream-world."  "She 
speaks  quietly,  clearly,  and  promptly,  and  is  al- 
ways in  a  serious,  almost  religious  frame  of  mind. 
Her  bearing  indicates  a  deeply  religious  mood." 
"To  every  one  who  did  not  know  her  secret  she 
was  a  girl  of  fifteen  and  a  half,  in  no  respect  un- 
like a  thousand  other  such  girls." 

Jung  gives  accounts  of  the  seances  at  which  he 
was  present,  discusses  the  development  of  the 
somnambulic  personalities,  with  a  study  of  the 
way  in  which  S.  W.'s  mind  reacted  to  Justinus 
Kerner's  book,  "Die  Seherin  von  Prevorst,"  and 
also  gives  a  quite  full  account  of  her  scheme  of 
"mystic  science."  Her  visions  seemed  to  lose 
plasticity  and  form,  and  six  months  after  Jung 
withdrew  from  the  seances,  she  was  caught  cheat- 
ing. 

"Deducting  the  want  of  balance  due  to  puberty, 
there  remains  a  pathological  residue  which  ex- 
presses itself  in  reactions  which  .  .  .  have  a 
bizarre  unaccountable  character.  .  .  Traits  which 


70  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

can  certainly  be  regarded  as  hysterical."  Mis- 
reading was  due  to  a  "hysterical  dispersion  of  at- 
tention." This  is  "a  quite  elementary  automatic 
phenomena."  "A  healthy  person  only  exceptional- 
ly allows  himself  to  be  so  engaged  by  an  object 
that  he  fails  to  correct  the  errors  of  a  dispersed 
attention — those  of  the  kind  described.  The  fre- 
quency of  these  occurrences  in  the  patient  point 
to  a  considerable  limitation  of  the  field  of  con- 
sciousness." "We  thus  find  .  .  .  rudimentary  au- 
tomatisms, fragments  of  dream  manifestations, 
which  imply  .  .  .  the  possibility  that  some  day 
more  than  one  association  would  creep  in  between 
the  perception  of  the  dispersed  attention  and 
consciousness.  The  misreading  shows  us,  ... 
a  certain  automatic  independence  of  the  psycho- 
logical elements,  .  .  .  and  can  be  thus  conceived 
as  a  prodromal  symptom  of  the  later  events ;  spe- 
cially as  its  psychology  is  prototypical  for  the 
mechanism  of  somnambulic  dreams,  which  are  in- 
deed nothing  but  a  many  sided  multiplication  and 
manifold  variation  of  the  elementary  processes. 
In  course  of  time  the  states  of  dispersed  attention 
.  .  .  have  grown  into  these  remarkable  somnam- 
bulic attacks;  hence  they  disappeared  from  the 
waking  state,  which  was  free  from  attacks."  "In 
the  semi-somnambulism  one  has  the  impression 
of  a  mature  woman  possessed  of  considerable  dra- 
matic talent.  The  reason  for  this  seriousness  .  .  . 
is  given  in  her  explanation  that  at  these  times 
she  stands  at  the  frontier  of  this  world  and  the 


71 

other,  and  associates  just  as  truly  with  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  as  with  living  people.  And,  indeed, 
her  conversation  is  usually  divided  between  an- 
swers to  real  objective  questions  and  hallucina- 
tory ones." 

In  the  automatic  movements  of  the  table  there 
was  no  question  of  intentional  and  voluntary 
pushing  or  pulling  on  the  part  of  the  patient.  Un- 
conscious motor  phenomena  are  easily  produced 
even  in  normal  persons.  They  are  powerfully 
affected  by  suggestion  or  by  earlier  autosugges- 
tion. It  is  a  question  of  partial  hypnosis,  limited 
entirely  to  the  motor  area  of  the  arm.  The  best 
form  of  suggestion  is  a  series  of  rhythmic  but 
very  slight  taps  upon  the  table,  and  soon  the  os- 
cillations become  stronger.  "By  means  of  this 
simple  mechanism  there  may  arise  those  cases  of 
thought-reading  so  bewildering  at  first  sight." 

At  another  seance  the  automatic  expression  of 
one  personality  is  interrupted  unexpectedly  by 
"a  new  person,  of  whose  existence  no  one  had  any 
suspicion"  (who  was,  according  to  S.  W.,  Jung's 
grandfather).  That  is,  automatic  phenomena 
were  progressing  favorably  when  darkness  came 
on,  and,  as  the  influence  of  that  upon  the  sugges- 
tibility of  the  sense-organs  is  well-known,  it  seems 
to  have  been  the  foundation  "for  a  rapid  deepen- 
ing of  hypnosis,  in  consequence  of  which  halluci- 
nations could  be  developed."  "It  is  probably  a 
dissociation  of  the  personality  already  present 
which  seized  upon  the  material  next  at  hand  for 


72  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

its  expression,  namely,  upon  the  associations  con- 
cerning" Jung.  "The  perception  of  this  unex- 
pected intervention  of  a  new  power  must  inevit- 
ably excite  a  feeling  of  the  strangeness  of  the  au- 
tomatisms, and  would  easily  suggest  the  thought 
that  an  independent  spirit  is  here  making  itself 
known.  Hence  the  intelligible  association  that 
she  would  finally  be  able  to  see  this  spirit." 


SECTION  2 

"So  many  gods,  so  many  creeds, 
So  many  paths  that  wind  and  wind, 
When  just  the  art  of  being  kind 
Is  all  this  old  world  needs." 

The  following  sections  2  and  3  of  this  chapter  are 
so  obstrusely  dry  that  only  bespectacled  scholars  will 
enjoy  reading  them.  The  ordinary  reader  is  asked  not 
to  make  the  attempt,  but  husband  his  intellectual  forces 
for  an  attack  upon  other  portions  of  the  book. 

So  many  of  the  free  will  arguments  are  ad  hominem 
— e.  g.  arguments  that  if  we  confess  the  truth  of  de- 
terminism, it  will  undermine  some  cherished  dogma  or 
institution — that  we  are  tempted  to  offer  in  return  one 
of  the  same  kind,  which  you  must  take  cum  granum 
salo.  It  is,  that  if  we  reject  causality  as  absolute,  then 
(worse  than  all  other  calamities)  this  very  reasoning, 
upon  which  we  have  spent  so  much  care  and  time — we 
in  writing  it  and'  you  in  understanding  it — and  fort 
which  you  have  paid  out  your  good  money,  would  be 
little  better  than  a  deception.  You  and  we  therefore  have 
an  interest  at  stake  in  refuting  this  theory  which  de- 
nies our  knowledge  and  would  crown  Chance  king  over 
Life.  Let  us  rally  our  forces  about  our  standard  and 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  73 

march  forth  to  the  battle.  Three  strong  friends,  Science, 
Metaphysics,  and  Theology,  will  all  be  loyal  to  us  in 
this  hour  of  need.  Science  will  be  loyal  because  all  of 
his  discoveries  have  been  made  by  ignoring  any  but  a 
material  universe,  wherein  no  energy  is  ever  gained  or 
lost  in  any  operation,  (a  method  that  hasn't  been  proven 
to  be  inadequate  to  the  severest  tasks).  Metaphysics 
will  stand  by  us,  because  its  aim  is  to  arrive  at  a 
unified  concept  of  the  world,  to  reduce  it  to  some  single 
principle,— ^which  it  can  never  do  by  covering  over  with 
some  vague  term,  e.  g.,  the  "elan  vital"  of  Bergson), 
an  admission  of  irregularity  in  itself.  Theology  also 
takes  our  side  if  it  aspires  to  be  consistent  with  man's 
tenet  of  an  omniscient  Deity,  since  how  could  Deity 
foreknow  the  future  unless  He  could  predict  the  part  to 
be  played  in  it  by  Man;  which  implies  that  Man's  part 
is  predetermined? 

There  are  two  tremendous  consequences  of  the  fact 
that  all  things  move  absolutely  obedient  to  "law."  The 
one  is 

"I  am  the  master  of  my  fate, 
I  am   the  captain  of  my  soul." 

As  surely  as  the  future  is  the  fruit  of  the  present, 
so  surely  is  our  destiny  bound  to  be  the  consequence  of 
what  we  made  it;  if  the  universe  is  obedient  to  "law,"  we 
actually,  by  exploring  that  "law,"  can  trick  the  universe 
into  slavery  to  us  as  its  master.  The  other  consequence 
is,  however,  that  as  surely  as  the  present  is  only  a 
result  of  the  past,  so  certainly  must  all  the  good  and  ill 
fortunes  of  life  be  looked  upon  ultimately  as  fortunes — • 
as  throws  of  the  dice  (even  tho,  at  the  same  time — with 
apparent,  but  not  actual  inconsistency — we  can  continue 
to  recognize  many  of  them  as  the  rewards  of  conduct), 
for,  were  we  present  at  our  own  first  creation,  to  deter- 
mine our  fate? 

Something  like  the  following  must  have  occurred  to 
us  shortly  before  we  even  existed  at  all;  we  were  called 


74  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

aside  by  our  Maker,  and  told  that  in  order  that  we,  and 
not  He,  should  be  the  one  responsible  for  our  subsequent 
actions,  we  must  take  part  in  the  creation  of  ourselves, 
which  now  was  imminent.  He  did  the  principal  part 
of  making  us  otherwise,  if  we  existed  from  eternity 
could  He  claim  we  were  His  creatures  and  must  obey 
Him?  He  knew,  however,  that  by  letting  us  tamper  with 
the  work,  while  He  looked  out  of  the  window,  the  said 
work  would  be  imperfect.  Thus,  a  little  spice  would 
be  introduced  into  life  and  He  could  still  say,  "If  you 
suffer,  didn't  your  act  bring  it  upon  you?" 

Men,  having  inherited  a  belief  in  an  intelligence 
which  preceded  and  ordained  all  material  crea- 
tures, sometimes  defend  their  faith  by  the  follow- 
ing argument: 

"There  was  once  a  creation,  therefore  also  a 
creator,  a  deus.  Otherwise  the  universe-machine 
has  been  running  already  for  an  infinity  of  time, 
so  that  by  rights  all  the  stars  long,  long  ago, 
should  have  gravitated  into  one  inclusive  mass 
:n  the  middle  of  the  universe,  and  all  energy  (that 
otherwise  might  hurl  them  apart)  should  have 
bfen  raditated  away  altogether,  or  at  least  been 
frittered  down  to  the  one  form,  evenly  distrib- 
uted, Heat.  The  fact  that  the  universe  hasn't 
become,  and  remained,  one  such  single  inert  luke- 
warm lump,  proves  that  it's  been  'wound  up' 
again  by  some  deus  ex  machina" 

This  argument  didn't  seem  so  presumptuous  at 
the  time  it  first  was  put  forth,  as  it  seems  to  us 
now;  for  in  those  days  men  supposed  that  "mat- 
ter" and  "energy"  were  permanent  realities,  quite 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  75 

separate  and  unchangeable ;  the  men  of  that  time 
hadn't  dreamed  our  modern  visions  of  the  trans- 
mutability  of  elements ;  of  the  break-up  of  atoms ; 
or  of  matter  itself  being  but  one  form  of  energy, 
in  essence  as  changeable  as  any  of  Energy's  other 
forms. 

Today  we're  less  confident  of  our  omniscence. 
When  the  vibrations  from  our  universe  reach  the 
limits  of  the  luminiferous  ether,  who  shall  say 
whether  they  roll  backwards  upon  the  centers 
that  shook  them  forth,  or  whether  they  remain 
there  in  those  uttermost  reaches  and  transmit 
themselves  into  gases,  liquid,  and  solids? 

But  had  men's  knowledge  of  such  ultimate 
things  been  as  correct  as  they  fancied  it  was,  yet 
they  might  have  reflected  that  even  the  least 
warm  bodies  are  always  evaporating  their  sub- 
stance into  space,  and  at  the  same  time  always 
sending  forth  not  merely  heat,  but  various  other 
vibrations.  To  be  sure,  those  of  the  exhalations 
which  are  gaseous  will  be  subject  to  only  the  force 
of  gravitation.  But  we  know  that  solids,  if  suf- 
ficiently microscopic,  may  be  impelled,  against 
gravitation,  to  dart  away  into  space,  by  the  dy- 
namic pressure  upon  them  of  radiant  energy.19 
Suppose  that  in  Act  I,  you  strip  matter  of  nearly 
all  its  energies,  and  lay  it  inert  in  the  center  of 
your  universe.  Act  2  opens  with  the  liberated 
energies  driving  in  storms  thru  space  catching  up 


19Thig,  possibly,  is  an  explanation  of  why  a  comefs  tail,  which  is 
composed  of  mere  dust,  is  tossed  around,  and  even  ahead,  of  it,  as 
the  comet  swings  around  our  sun. 


76  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

particles  from  the  surface  of  your  central  ball 
of  matter,  and  bearing  them  to  heaven  in  despite 
of  gravitation.  In  Act  3,  eons  afterward,  you'll 
have  again  the  same  old  universe  you  started  with. 
Try  it  and  see.  Yet,  perhaps  not  quite  the  same, 
after  all.  For,  things  never  really  repeat.  Fried- 
rich  Nietzsche  made  famous,  the  thot,  that  as 
space  must  have  its  limits,  and  as  the  number  of 
ultimate  divisibles  of  energy  must  be  limited, 
therefore  the  number  of  possible  combinations  of 
forces  must  have  some  limit  finally,  so  in  limit- 
less time  identical  worlds  must  happen  again  and 
again.  When  Nietzsche  reasoned  this  way  he'd 
forgotten  his  elementary  geometry.  Were  the  ex- 
tremest  points  of  the  universe  only  a  hair's 
breath  apart,  still  the  number  of  positions  a  point 
could  occupy  on  the  line  between  them,  would  be 
limitless.  There's  no  more  reason  for  believing 
in  the  "Eternal  Recurrence"  than  for  fearing  that 
the  universe  will  "run  down."  "Progress  moves 
not  in  circles,  which  are  closed,  but  in  spirals, 
eternally  new."  In  vain  man  searches  for  signs 
of  planned  efficiency  in  the  workings  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  or  for  scrupulousness  in  its  methods,  com- 
parable to  even  the  little  refinement  to  which  man 
himself  has  attained;  and  yet,  undirected  and 
unmoral  to  the  Cosmos  be,  still,  in  changing  over 
from  old-time  views,  we  should  try  to  make  cer- 
tain that  we're  not  ignorant  of  their  understand- 
ing, before  we  presume  to  understand  their  ignor- 
ance. For  Cosmos,  spells  more  than  Chaos.  It's 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  77 

orderly,  and,  apparently,  it  even  has  a  Whence 
and  a  Whither.  Not,  perhaps,  a  whither  in  Aris- 
totle's sense  of  a  purpose,  to  fulfil  which  it  has 
come  into  existence;  but  a  whither,  in  the  sense 
of  a  point  of  the  compass,  toward  which  it  sets. 
Herbert  Spencer  started  us  upon  the  road  toward 
a  definition  of  this  Whither,  in  his  "Synthetic 
Philosophy."  He  declared  that  things  progress 
from  discrete  homogeneity  to  concrete  heterogene- 
ity. We  progress  from  discordant  monotony  to- 
ward that  harmony  consonant  with  individuality. 
"Very  well,"  say  you,  "since  science  and  meta- 
physics can  give  me  no  help,  I  see  that  I  was 
foolish  indeed  ever  to  have  deserted  my  old  pas- 
tor. I  will  go  back  to  him,  and  ask  him  to  help 
me  pray  for  The  Light."  Your  pastor  is  very 
glad  indeed  to  see  you  back  again  within  the  fold 
and  comforts  you  with  a  great  many  "fundamen- 
tal verities"  from  the  Scriptures.  For  a  time  you 
feel  that  at  last  you  have  indeed  found  peace. 
But  an  uneasy  suspicion  will  not  be  smothered 
that  it  is  a  dishonorable  peace.  There  are  so 
many  things  which  you  have  to  just  "take  upon 
faith."  You  can  take  them  on  faith  all  right 
enough  so  long  as  they're  only  a  little  absurd  or 
improbable;  but  when,  into  the  bargain  they  be- 
gin to  be  inconsistent,  then  you  find  yourself  run- 
ning for  help  to  the  theological  apologists.  "How 
shall  I  believe  God  to  be  good,  if,  tho  all-powerful, 
he  allows  evils  to  exist?"  "Because  except  thru 
evil,  He  has  no  way  of  developing  character!" 


78  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

"Then  why  doesn't  He  make  another  way  ?"  "My 
child,  it  is  not  for  us  to  weigh  His  inscrutable 
motives  with  our  finite  minds!"  "Because  finite 
minds  are  the  only  minds  we  have,  must  we  let 
priests  do  our  thinking?  Did  He  give  us  these 
minds  expecting  we  shouldn't  use  them?"  And 
so  each  reply  raises  but  another  question.  Unless 
our  theologian  is  very  clever,  indeed,  at  answer- 
ing these  doubts  in  plausible  language,  we  begin 
to  wonder  whether  his  explanations  of  things 
really  explain  them  at  all.  We  ask  why  there 
was  any  more  need  of  a  God  to  make  the  world 
than  there  was  of  a  Super-God  to  make  God.  And 
finally,  we  come  to  think  the  theologian,  despite 
his  assumptions,  really  knows  no  more  about  the 
matter  than  we  do  ourselves,  and  we  leave  him, 
to  inquire  elsewhere. 

The  witty  Dean  Hole  has  left  some  good 
stories  scattered  through  his  Memoirs,  which  will 
be  told  and  retold  until  their  identity  is  lost.  He 
tells  us  that  once  a  country  clergyman  was  asked 
to  pray  for  rain.  He  did  so,  and  the  rain  did  fall, 
and  continued  to  do  so.  When  it  had  been  rain- 
ing some  time,  the  local  farmers  met  and  dis- 
cussed the  situation.  "That's  the  worst  of  our 
parson,"  said  one,  "he  always  overdoes  every- 
thing." That  story  reminds  him  of  another.  One 
farmer  stated  to  another,  who  was  a  Methodist, 
that  he  intended  to  ask  the  rector  to  use  the  prayer 
for  rain.  "Better  ask  our  parson,"  said  the 
Methodist,  "he  can  pray  your  rector's  head  off!" 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  79 

Little  Esther  was  saying  her  bed-time  pray- 
ers, and  in  conclusion,  asked:  "Please,  dear  God, 
make  San  Francisco  the  capital  of  California." 

"Why  did  you  ask  that,  Esther?"  interrupted 
her  mother. 

"Because  I  wrote  it  on  my  examination  paper 
that  way." 

What  but  our  underlying  religious  disbelief 
makes  the  above  stories  seem  humorous  ?  Uncon- 
sciously, we  all  accept  the  fact  that  all  events, 
including  mental  events,  proceed  according  to  uni- 
form "laws." 

Of  mental  events,  the  first  determiner  is  In- 
heritance. McKeever20  says  truthfully:  "People 
are  by  no  means  all  alike  at  birth,  but  are  born 
with  predispositions  to  form  habits  of  one  kind 
more  readily  than  another.  This  is  perhaps  more 
readily  seen  in  the  case  of  animals.  The  offspring 
of  the  heavy  draught-horse  is  never  expected  to 
develop  readily  into  habits  of  movement  that  be- 
long to  the  horse  of  pacing  or  trotting  strain.  It  is 
not  in  accordance  with  his  nature.  But  he  will  eas- 
ily and  naturally  take  up  habits  that  pertain  to 
drawing  heavy  loads.  The  young  bulldog  early 
falls  into  habits  of  surliness  and  pugnacity,  while 
his  young  companion  of  the  sheperd-dog  variety 
takes  more  readily  to  acts  suggesting  a  kind  and 
gentle  disposition.  It  is  the  nature  of  the  brute, 
in  each  case,  that  is  asserting  itself ;  and  this  na- 


:°McKeever    Psychology    and    Higher    Life. 


80 

ture  is  Inherited.  Many  more  such  examples 
could  be  given. 

So  it  is  with  men.  The  child  is  likely  to  in- 
herit not  only  much  that  is  peculiar  in  the  phy- 
sical form  and  movement  of  its  parents  and  more 
remote  ancestors,  but  also  many  of  the  mental 
traits." 

David  Hartley,  a  psychologist  living  from 
1705-1757,  based  his  ideas  upon  the  investigations 
which  physiologists  already  had  made  on  the 
nervous  system.  You  probably  are  aware  that 
the  nerve  cells  differ  from  other  cells  of  the  body 
physically  in  their  elongation  (to  sometimes  sev- 
eral feet)  and  functionally  in  that  the  sensitivity 
which  is  an  attribute  of  all  protoplasm  (not  to 
say,  of  all  matter)  is  greatest  in  the  nerve-cells. 
They  are  technically  called  neurons.  Each  has 
a  center,  or  nucleus,  from  which  a  long  thread- 
like axis  grows  in  one  direction,  and  root-like 
branching  dendrites  in  the  others.  The  meeting 
of  the  axis  of  one  neuron  with  the  dendrite  of  an- 
other is  called  a  synapse.  The  nerve-current  jumps 
across  these  synapses  as  a  spark  passing  along 
a  fuse  would  jump  to  a  second  fuse  placed  end  to 
end  to  the  first,  and  when  it  reaches  the  brain  a 
sensation  is  felt  that  depends  not  on  the  nerve 
along  which  it  travels,  as  Johannes  Mueller  (1801- 
1858)  first  supposed,  nor  upon  nature  of  the  cur- 
rent which  travelled,  but  on  the  part  of  the  brain 
it  reaches.  It  is  as  tho  we  had  fuses  leading  to 
different  kegs,  in  one  of  which  was  powder  which 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  81 

would  burn  with  red  light,  in  another,  powder 
which  burn  with  a  blue  light,  etc.  Tho  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  all  these  sections  of  the  brain  are 
themselves  comprised  of  simply  millions  more  of 
nerve-cells, — as  tho  the  powder  in  our  kegs  were 
all  in  the  form  of  coils  and  coils  more  of  fuse.  Of 
course  the  brain  and  nerves  are  superior  to  com- 
mon fuses,  in  that  they  are  not  burned  out  but 
renew  themselves  after  the  spark  has  passed 
along  them. 

To  illustrate  how  this  chain  operates,  we'll  sup- 
pose that  something  touches  your  foot.  From  the 
multiplicity  of  the  nerves  which  begin  sending 
currents  to  your  brain  you  get  the  sensation  of 
the  extensiveness  of  the  surface  touched;  from 
the  intensity  of  the  incoming  current  you  sense 
the  violence  of  the  stimulus ;  from  one  distinct  set 
of  nerves  you  get  the  impression  of  pain,  from  an- 
other set  a  sense  of  heat,  from  another  set  a  sense 
of  warmth,  from  another  a  sense  of  cold,  from 
another  set  of  nerves  you  get  the  sensation  of 
tactile  contact  (such  as  a  fly  would  make),  from 
another  set  the  sense  of  pressure,  (as  of  a  weight 
resting  upon  the  skin),  from  nerves  in  the  adja- 
cent joints  the  sense  of  strain  set  up  to  resist  the 
pressure  of  your  object  against  my  foot,  and  per- 
haps from  the  most  elementary  nerves  of  all 
(without  the  terminal  organs  possessed  by  the 
others)  ending  in  the  internal  fibres  of  those  mus- 
cles, you  get  also  the  sense  of  malaise  in  the  tis- 
sues themselves.  Surgical  cases  prove  that  if  any 


82  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

one  of  these  nerves  is  severed  with  a  knife,  you'll 
remain  thereafter  incapable  of  feeling  any  one  of 
these  sensations  from  any  certain  particular  re- 
gion unless  the  nerve  shall  knit  and  grow  together 
again.  This  shows  how  dependent  you  are  upon 
your  system  of  nerves  for  all  knowledge  whatever 
about  the  outside  world;  since,  of  course,  your 
eyes  and  ears,  and  all  other  sense  organs  have  to 
send  their  messages  over  these  same  nerve-wires. 
If  you  could  free  yourself  from  the  trammels  of 
this  body  as  the  Oriental  Mahatmas  and  Adepts 
are  alleged  to  do,  and  could  go  sailing  through 
the  air  to  visit  foreign  climes,  you  wouldn't  learn 
very  much,  would  you?  Not  unless  you  packed 
your  nervous  system  in  your  suit  case,  and  toted 
it  along.  By  staining  with  certain  dyes,  we  can 
follow  the  course  of  a  particular  set  of  nerves,  as 
they  run  from  the  outside  of  the  body  to  the  spinal 
cord,  wherein  they  ascend  to  the  brain.  If  a  set 
of  nerves  has  become  diseased,  the  disease  some- 
times mounts  gradually  up  its  full  length  to  where 
it  enters  an  organ  of  the  brain,  and  by  means  of 
the  discoloration  produced  by  the  disease,  we  can 
follow  the  course  of  the  nerve.  In  cases  where 
specific  parts  of  the  brain  have  been  exposed  to 
pressure  or  submitted  to  electrical  or  other  stimu- 
lation the  sensations  felt  by  the  owner  of  the 
brain  are  attributed  by  him  to  other  specific  parts 
of  the  body.  In  these  various  ways,  it  has  been 
possible  to  mark  out  the  functions  of  large  tracts 
of  the  brain's  surface  so  accurately,  that  in  sev- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  83 

eral  cases  of  invalids  who  felt  some  incapacity  as 
though  the  trouble  existed  in  the  body  proper,  a 
surgeon  has  been  able  to  remove,  by  a  correctly 
directed  trephining  operation,  the  true  cause  of 
the  malady:  e.  g.,  perhaps  a  clot  of  blood  under 
the  skull.  Says  McKeever:  "President  G.  Stan- 
ley Hall,  of  Clark  University,  performed  a  most 
interesting  experiment.  After  the  death  of  Laura 
Bridgeman,  a  blind,  deaf  mute,  remarkable  for 
her  intellectual  attainments,  Dr.  Hall  examined 
her  brain  carefully  and  found  that  the  optic  lobes 
were  withered  and  undeveloped,  the  gray  cover- 
ing being  much  thinner  over  this  portion.  On  the 
contrary,  the  lateral  portions  of  the  brain,  the 
centers  for  movement  of  the  secondary  muscles, 
showed  unusual  development.  The  absence  of  the 
two  senses  of  sight  and  hearing  compelled  Miss 
Bridgeman  to  depend  almost  wholly  upon  the 
muscular  sense  and  the  sense  of  touch  in  getting 
her  knowledge  about  things.  Hence  the  full  de- 
velopment of  the  lateral  brain  convolutions. 

"By  cutting  into  the  brain  of  a  diseased  person 
who  has  long  been  deaf,  dumb  or  blind,  or  par- 
tially paralyzed,  the  scientist  finds  a  nerve  struc- 
ture of  a  peculiar  nature.  The  center,  which,  on 
account  of  the  particular  ailment,  has  not  been 
used,  is  always  found  to  be  shriveled  up, — atro- 
phied. On  the  other  hand,  unusual  ability  in 
the  performance  of  any  function  is  attended  by 
an  unusual  development  of  the  corresponding 
brain-center. 


84  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

"A  soldier  receives  a  bullet-wound  in  the  oc- 
cipital lobe  of  the  brain  and  is  immediately  ren- 
dered wholly  or  partially  blind.  In  this  case  the 
evidence  is  fairly  conclusive  that  the  center  for 
sight  lies  in  the  region  of  the  brain  which  was 
struck.  If  the  lesion  in  the  occipital  lobe  is  such 
as  to  cause  complete  blindness,  all  memory  of 
things  seen  is  als.o  obliterated.  A  person  so  in- 
jured can  form  no  visual  images  whatever. 

"1.  For  every  psychosis  (mind-act)  there  is 
a  neurosis  (nerve-act).  That  is,  accompanying 
every  mind-act  there  is  a  brain-act. 

"2.  All  mental  processes  tend  to  express  them- 
selves in  form  of  physical  acts,  although  only  a 
few,  the  most  act-impelling  ones,  succeed  in  com- 
ing to  expression  in  such  form. 

"4.  One's  moods  change  constantly  with  the 
ever-varying  condition  of  his  health  and  his  en- 
vironment. He  may  experience  joy,  sadness,  hope 
and  despair  all  within  a  single  hour,  and  shortly 
afterwards,  while  deeply  absorbed  in  a  problem, 
none  of  these. 

"5.  The  nervous  system  is  composed  of  (1) 
afferent  nerve-tracts  with  specialized  outer  ends 
to  catch  the  sense  of  touch,  sight,  sound,  etc. :  (2) 
central  organs  of  re-direction,  as  the  brain,  spinal 
cords,  and  smaller  ganglia;  (3)  efferent  nerve- 
tracts  to  direct  the  movements  of  muscles,  limbs, 
etc. 

"6.  Many  of  the  ingoing  nerve  currents  are 
re-directed  and  movements  executed  correspond- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  85 

ingly  without  the  attention,  or  often  even  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  person  chiefly  concerned 
— the  subject." 

On  each  side  of  the  head,  just  above  the  temple, 
is  a  convolution  known  as  the  "Fissure  of  Ro- 
lando," of  which  every  part  represents  a  known 
(experimentally  verified)  portion  of  the  body; 
from  the  facial  muscles  (at  the  base  of  the  fissure) 
to  the  muscles  of  the  feet  (at  its  top).  One 
part  of  the  fissure  is  connected  with  incoming, 
and  the  other  with  outgoing  nerves.  Just  above 
the  temples  are  located  hearing  centers,  and 
at  the  rear  of  our  skulls  (not  over  the  eyes, 
as  phrenologists  postulate)  are  the  chief  centers 
of  vision.  Two  centers  alone — those  namely,  for 
writing  and  speech,  both  located  near  the  top  of 
the  head  on  the  left  side,  represent  definite  types 
of  activity  rather  than  mere  bodily  organs.  The 
mid-brain  seems  to  have  in  general,  a  supervisory 
and  co-ordinating  effect  over  the  lower  activities 
(a  frog  with  its  brain  removed  can  still  swim, 
though  but  blindly)  and  apparently  the  fore-brain 
has  higher  functions  still,  since  a  dog  from  whom 
the  fore-brain  was  removed,  lived  for  many  days 
an  ordinary  existence,  being  only  a  bit  snappy 
and  irritable,  and  unable  to  acquire  new  tricks. 
But  bear  in  mind  that  perception  is  not  completed 
in  the  sensory  organ  itself  nor  in  the  nerve.  As 
N.  Kostyleff,  a  Russian  psychologist  observes,  the 
results  of  modern  investigators  show  that  con- 
sciousness of  what  is  seen  depends  on  cerebral 


86  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

processes.  "It  is  to  this  cerebration  that  is  given 
the  name  of  visual  representation."  (Dr.  Nuel — 
La  Vision,  1904.)  Similar  results  have  been  ob- 
tained for  audile  images. 

The  nerves  which  bring  stimuli  from  the  periph- 
eries of  our  bodies  can  generate  sensations  only 
when  those  nerves  connect  with  the  proper  or- 
gans in  the  brain.  Therefore  it  is  brain  activity 
which  is  normally  essential  to  thought. 

Is  it  possible  for  thought  to  take  place  without 
the  brain  ?  The  first  effect  of  diseased  conditions 
in  a  section  of  the  brain  is  some  abnormality  in 
the  patient's  power  or  tendency  to  think  or  feel 
as  regards  the  subject  of  functioning  of  that 
brain-section,  followed  in  time,  if  the  disease  pro- 
gresses, by  an  irreparable  loss  of  the  faculty  of 
having  any  feelings,  ideas,  dreams,  or  imaginings 
whatever,  upon  that  subject,  nor  of  comprehen- 
sion of  such  ideas  if  some  other  person  broaches 
them.  The  same  loss  of  faculty  of  course,  fol- 
lows the  surgical  removal  of  a  portion  of  the 
brain.  Isn't  this  fairly  plain  proof,  that  without 
a  brain  the  so-called  "soul"  is  without  perception, 
without  memory,  and  without  reason?  The 
Greeks  in  speaking  of  the  "soul"  of  anything 
meant  its  entelechy — to  Aristotle  the  "soul"  of  an 
axe  was  chopping.  But  a  long  line  of  theologians 
have  distorted  the  term  to  mean  a  sort  of  little 
imp  inside  each  of  us.  But  in  Givler's  happy  ex- 
pression, "Hard  atoms  and  soft  souls  may  suit 
the  temperamentally  minded,  but  whatever  van- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  87 

ities  science  may  exhibit,  temperament  is  not  one 
of  them.  .  .  .  We  are  then  not  going  to  study 
capital  M  mind,  nor  are  we  to  treat  of  conscious- 
ness as  an  inner  imp."21 

Not  to  dwell  longer,  however,  upon  negations, 
let  us  try  to  conceive  of  how  the  thinking  process 
is  built  up.  We  shall  commence  by  considering 
actions  so  primitive  as  hardly  to  deserve  the 
name,  Intelligent. 

As  hereinbefore  noted,  the  air-vibrations  (for 
example)  radiated  by  a  warm  object  affect 
warmth-end-organs  embedded  in  our  skin  so  these 
send  currents  along  the  nerves  to  cervical  centers 
located  along  the  posterior  side  of  the  fissure  of 
Rolando,  the  stimulation  of  which  particular  cen- 
ters happens  always  to  be  accompanied  by  an 
appropriate  sensation  of  warmth.  The  warmth 
of  the  original  object  consisted  in  the  rapidity  of 
vibration  of  its  molecules;  the  nervous  current 
is  doubtfully  a  vibratory  phenomenon  at  all;  and 
the  resultant  sensation  we  have  no  reason  what- 
ever to  regard  as  a  matter  of  vibration.  Other 
sensations,  as  heat,  cold,  pain  or  tactile  sensa- 
tion, singly  or  in  any  combination,  result,  not  im- 
mediately because  the  rapidity  of  vibrations  in 
the  object  is  different  or  because  of  its  contact 
with  our  skin,  but  indirectly  because  entirely  dif- 
ferent sets  of  end-organs  are  adapted  to  be  stimu- 
lated by  it  in  these  respective  cases,  and  so  send 
nerve-currents  similar  to  the  current  sent  before 


21Givler,    R.    C. — The    Conscious    Cross-section,    p.    37. 


88  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

except  that  by  traversing  other  tracts  they  arrive 
at  other  locations  on  the  posterior  side  of  Ro- 
lando's fissure. 

Right  here  we're  met  with  one  of  the  greatest 
questions  of  all  philosophy,  namely :  how  does  this 
happen,  that  because  there  existed  a  vibration  of 
material  particles,  or  a  flow  of  some  more  or  less 
physical  type  of  energy  along  nerves,  there  exists 
now  a  sensation,  felt  by  an  ego  ? 

It  appears  to  us  that  we  must  consider  Energy 
and  Feeling  as  outside  and  inside  views  of  the 
same  reality.  What  to  an  outer  observer  is,  say, 
an  electron,  is  known  to  the  electron  (?)  itself 
(shall  we  say  himself?)  as  ego;  what  is  known 
to  an  observer  as  motion  in  that  electron  is  known 
to  itself  as  sensation. 

Imagine  the  ego  i\?  a  smallest  divisible  unit  of 
one  of  the  forms  which  matter  or  energy  can  as- 
sume, and  that  the  elements  of  its  sensation  are 
its  own  inner  view,  so  to  speak,  of  the  motions 
to  which  it  is  subjected.  If  a  rotation  eastward 
was  felt  to  it  as  the  sensation  of  yellow,  a  rota- 
tion northward  as  redness,  and  non-rotation  as 
grayness,  then  a  slow  rotation  northeast  might 
mean  the  sensation  of  brown. 

Meantime  what  function  would  it  subserve? 
Merely  by  being  conscious  the  ego  would  contrib- 
ute nothing  to  give  it  a  survival  value  in  the  econ- 
omy of  the  animal  host.  It  might,  however,  be  of 
value  if  it  could  serve  as  a  unifying  agent  to  the 
animal  receiving  the  effect  of  a  multitude  of  nerve- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  89 

currents,  combining  them  in  itself,  and  reflecting 
back  upon  the  nerves  a  blend.  The  analogy  which 
comes  to  mind  is  that  of  a  pool  of  water  into 
which  various  colored  lights  are  playing,  and 
which  irridesces  with  an  effect  compounded  of 
them  all.  Because  of  the  utility  to  living  forms 
of  possessing  an  ego,  we  can  suppose  that  it  is 
by  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  that  there 
have  come  to  exist  the  existing  fauna  of  the  world 
endowed  with  some  means  of  sucking  to  them- 
selves at  conception,  and  holding  magnetized  so 
long  as  the  bodily  processes  endure,  one  of  these 
ego  particles,  much  as  a  floating  cork  might  be 
drawn  to  a  vortex  in  the  water,  and  remain  sus- 
pended over  the  center  of  it  so  long  as  the  vortex 
continued  in  motion,  after  which  the  cork  would 
be  released,  or  whirled  to  another  vortex  else- 
where in  the  stream.  Our  ego,  like  such  a  cork, 
would  travel,  meantime,  everywhere  that  the  vor- 
tex traveled,  whilst  retaining  the  same  suspended 
position  in  the  midst  of  its  activities  and  of  the 
inrush  and  outrush  of  so  many  gallons  of  ma- 
terial substances.  If  our  self  indeed  endures  as 
the  same  self  from  our  birth  until  our  death,  then 
it  differs  herein  from  all  that  we  know  of  any  of 
the  ordinary  material  particles  of  the  body.  (On 
an  average  of  seven  years  the  material  of  the 
body  is  renewed  completely.) 

For  there's  need  to  explain  how  the  unification 
of  perceptions  take  place.  When  you  stare 
squarely  at  an  object,  the  reflections  from  mil- 


90  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

lions  of  points  of  its  surface  are  focused  onto  as 
many  nerve-ends  on  the  retina  of  my  eye,  so  that 
a  very  specific  combination  of  a  million  nerve- 
currents  flows  into  your  brain.  Suppose  later 
that  you  glimpse  that  same  object  again,  not 
squarely,  but  out  of  one  corner  of  your  eye.  Its 
points  now  are  reflected  upon  an  entirely  differ- 
ent part  of  my  retina,  so  that  the  new  one  million 
nerve-currents  is  a  different  combination  entirely 
from  the  former  one  million;  yet  you  recognize 
these  as  meaning  the  same  object.  Evidently  the 
important  thing  is  never  what  individual  nerve- 
currents  are  arriving,  but  what  combination  they 
form.  This  implies  that  they  are  grasped  not 
singly,  but  as  a  unit.  Now  perhaps  we  can  see 
the  functions  which  would  be  filled  by  an  ego  as 
lacking  in  self-activity  as  the  cork  floating  over 
the  whirlpool, — an  ego  which  yet  partook  of  the 
whirlpool  movements,  with  all  their  tremulous 
modifications,  of  the  flood  of  currents  within  the 
brain  cortex,  and  also  in  turn,  by  its  own  very 
inertia,  reshaped  the  direction  of  those  currents. 
Let's  apply  one  more  analogy.  When  a  strong 
electric  current  flows  through  a  cylinder  formed 
of  spirals  of  wire  (a  helix),  it'll  cause  any  adja- 
cent bar  of  iron  to  leap  into  the  center  of  the 
helix  and  remain  suspended  there  between  the 
pulls  of  gravity  and  of  magnetism.  Fluctuations 
of  the  electric  current  cause  ossilations  of  the 
piece  of  iron ;  but  the  very  inertia  of  the  iron  then 
reacts  to  check  or  create  currents  in  the  helix. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  91 

The  spirals  of  wire  here  represent  our  nerve- 
system;  the  currents,  our  afferent  and  efferent 
nerve-currents,  and  the  iron  our  persisting  and 
unifying  (tho  inert)  ego. 

To  form  any  exact  conception  of  what  that  ego 
is  which  survives  the  body  if  anything  survives, 
or  which  is  the  unifying  element  in  intelligence 
if  any  one  entity  has  a  function  of  unifying  intel- 
ligence, is  difficult.  True  knowledge  must  wait 
upon  further  advances  in  science.  No  explana- 
tion is  afforded  by  merely  calling  it  a  different 
name — e.  g.,  "the  soul,"  "the  atman."  When  we 
have  called  it  "soul"  we  understand  it  no  better 
than  we  did  before,  therefore  let's  throw  away 
the  concept  "soul"  as  a  useless  one.  It  is  not  an 
hypothesis,  it  is  not  even  an  impressionistic 
sketch  of  processes;  it's  an  ignorance-glossing, 
pretentious,  mountable,  empty  name.  The  scien- 
tific spirit  is  not  to  try  to  cover  up  thus  the  limita- 
tions of  our  knowledge,  but  to  confess  them 
frankly  and  thus  define  problems  for  future  in- 
vestigation. 

Let's  return,  therefore,  to  our  discussion  of  the 
learning-process.  As  described  by  McKeever,  at 
the  first  moment  of  a  child's  existence  the  "pon- 
derable objects  touching  him  from  without,  and 
the  colic  and  other  disturbances  from  within,  be- 
gin an  everlasting  irritation  of  his  nervous 
system.  He  coos  and  kicks  and  screams  and 
otherwise  'fights  back.'  Thus  the  environment 
impresses  itself  upon  him,  and  thus  he  reacts  upon 


92  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

it  and  acquires  the  more  rapidly  the  little,  simple 
meanings  of  things.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
pastimes  imaginable  is  to  observe  closely  day  by 
day  the  conduct  of  the  little  child  as  he  proceeds 
to  find  out  the  whole  world." 

(On  page  136)  "I  believe  that  the  primary  law 
of  earliest  development  of  consciousness  in  the 
child  is  that  of  change,  or  variation.  His  first 
awareness  of  things  present  to  sight  is  of  objects 
moving,  and  thus  causing  a  change  of  position 
of  the  retinal  image.  He  becomes  aware  of  sta- 
tionary objects  only  after  he  is  able  to  move  his 
head,  and  thus  cause  a  moving  retinal  image.  His 
first  consciousness  of  things  heard  is  of  sounds 
that  come  intermittently,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
human  voice.  .  .  .  These  changes  in  the  amount 
and  character  of  the  nervous  stimuli  impart  to  the 
brain  cortex  the  many  nervous  shocks,  each  with 
its  peculiar  quality  of  feeling.  In  some  such  way 
as  this  I  believe,  the  child  gets  his  first  idea  of  a 
.  .  .  'this  different  from  that/ " 

"Every  thought  one  thinks  tends  to  express  it- 
self in  an  act.  To  make  this  statement  clear,  sup- 
pose you  meet  three  good  friends  on  the  street- 
corner,  each  about  to  depart  in  a  different  direc- 
fion  and  each  urging  you  to  go  with  him.  You 
listen  to  A's  plea  and  feel  impelled  to  go  with 
him,  and  so  afterwards  with  B  and  C.  But  all 
the  time  they  are  talking  there  keeps  coming  up 
in  your  mind  a  more  impelling  thot  that  either 
of  them  can  offer ;  for  example,  the  thot  that  you 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  93 

promised  your  mother  that  you  would  return 
home  directly.  And  so  you  do  go  directly  home, 
but  you  no  doubt  felt,  for  a  moment,  an  impulse 
to  act  on  the  suggestion  of  each  of  your  three 
friends.  So  is  that  every  thought  tends  to  express 
itself  in  an  act,  but  only  one,  the  one  most  im- 
pelling to  action,  directs  your  conduct  at  any 
given  time.  Of  the  thousands  of  thots  that  rush 
thru  one's  mind  in  the  course  of  a  day,  compara- 
tively few  become  realized  in  actual  conduct." 
(This  writer  would  have  been  more  correct  had 
he  said  that  thots  themselves  are  but  the  sensa- 
tions of  miniature  rehearsals  of  acts.) 

"When  one  is  undergoing  deep  emotion,  he 
doubtless  experiences  feelings  of  a  pronounced 
character.  In  fear,  he  has  that  chilly,  drawn-up 
feeling  in  the  stomach;  in  anger,  a  warm  feeling 
of  physical  comfort  about  the  bowls  and  chest; 
in  embarrassment,  a  dry,  uncomfortable  feeling 
about  the  mouth  and  throat.  Other  emotions 
have  their  peculiar  kind  of  feeling.  The  one  who 
is  experiencing  the  emotion  is  not  likely  to  take 
very  close  account  of  the  physical  expressions  ac- 
companying. An  outside  observer,  however, 
often  may.  As  a  matter  of  fact  you  can  very 
easily  catch  yourself.  See,  for  example,  whether 
in  pronouncing  p  you  don't  feel  a  slight  tingling 
of  the  lips,  or  whether  you  can  pronounce  x,  q,  or 
k  without  a  movement  in  the  throat.  So  that  as 
the  Russian  Kostyleff  (Cerebral  Mechanism  of 
Thot,  p.  16)  observes,  The  intellectual  develop- 


94  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ment  of  the  individual  comes  down  to  the  enrich- 
ing of  the  organism  in  cerebral  reflexes,'  and 
(p.  36)  'the  reflexes  studied  by  Pawlow  and  Bech- 
terew  are  not  the  base  of  a  process,  the  full  im- 
plication of  which  escapes  science,  but  they  are 
the  most  essential  elements,  the  very  body  of 
what  we  call  mental  images  or  ideas.' " 

It's  questionable  whether  the  course  of  any  in- 
coming nerve-current  ends  in  the  production  of 
a  sensation.  The  current  continues  in  existence 
until  it  discharges  into  some  mechanism  of  muscu- 
lar actions.  For  example,  the  organism  of  most 
animals  is  so  arranged  that  if  the  animal  be  run- 
ning half  in  sun  and  half  in  shade,  the  general 
bodily  temperature  determines  whether  afferent 
currents  from  the  warmth  and  from  cold-end-or- 
gans respectively  will  accelerate  or  inhabit  the 
running  mechanisms  for  either  side  of  his  body, 
causing  a  taxis  (turning)  into  more  sun  or  into 
more  shade.  The  difference  between  a  heliotropic 
plant  (e.  g.  a  sunflower)  and  a  helio-taxic  animal 
(e.  g.  some  of  the  lower  forms)  is  as  follows.  The 
plant  reacts  to  an  excess  of  light  upon  one  side 
with  a  flow  of  sap  into  the  cells  of  the  opposite 
side,  the  tumescence  (expansion)  of  which  con- 
tinues to  bend  the  plant  toward  the  sun  until  the 
light-effect  upon  either  side  is  balanced.  But  the 
animal  reacts  generally  with  more  than  the  swell- 
ing of  muscles  on  one  side  of  him — he  reacts  with 
a  whole  cycle  of  alternate  swellings  and  contract- 
ings  of  such  muscles.  With  the  plant  it's  as  tho 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  95 

fluid  were  admitted  into  a  hydraulic  press,  and 
exerted  a  single  push;  but  in  the  animal  it's  as 
tho  fluid  were  admitted  into  a  steam-hammer  or 
an  engine,  which  continued  to  give  a  whole  series 
of  strokes  until  the  fluid  was  turned  off.  The 
fact  is  that  in  the  animal  the  initial  contraction 
of  a  muscle  causes  incoming  currents  of  sensa- 
tion from  the  muscle  itself,  which  sensations  then 
become  the  immediate  initiators  of  say  a  contrac- 
tion of  some  other  muscle,  sensory  currents  for 
which  in  their  turn  set  off  a  third  part  of  the 
process,  and  so  on  until  the  cycle  is  completed  by 
contracting  the  first  muscle  again,  and  the  entire 
chain  repeats  itself.  The  precise  course  of  such 
a  chain  depends  partly  upon  the  inherited  group- 
ings of  neurons,  with  which  were  born  (reflexes 
and  instincts),  and  partly  upon  automatisms  we 
establish  after  birth  (habits  and  associations) . 

When  we  first  perform  an  act  such  as  riding  a 
bicycle,  we  make  each  muscular  adjustment  de- 
liberately and  consciously,  but  so  soon  as  a  chain 
of  such  adjustments  has  been  repeated  many 
times,  its  steps  follow  one  another  without  need 
of  deliberation,  and  we  repress  the  monotonous 
complex  of  processes  into  our  unconscious.  Each 
muscular  contraction  or  inervation  built  as  one 
element  into  whole  cycle  or  complex,  which  no 
longer  disturbs  the  "higher"  brain  centers,  but 
is  "short-circuited"  thru  (taken  care  of  by) 
"lower"  centers  in  the  cerebellum  (small  brain 
under  the  main  cerebrum)  the  pons  (where  the. 


96  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

spinal  cord  enters  the  brain)  or  even  in  the  cord 
(the  main  rope  of  nerves  from  the  brain  to  the 
points  where  they  individually  branch  out  toward 
their  respective  termini)  similarly  these  very 
cycles,  complexes,  automatisms,  and  centers  may 
be  made  the  units  of  still  higher  organizations. 
When  we  have  mastered  the  muscular  automa- 
tisms of  balancing  our  bodies  on  our  right  foot,  on 
our  left  foot,  moving  forward,  and  moving  back- 
ward, we  may  then  build  these  automatisms  as 
elements  into  the  more  complex  automatism  of  a 
Spanish  Fandango. 

In  all  this  process  of  integrating  activities 
you'll  recognize  the  correlate  of  what  we  spoke 
of  before,  the  unifying  of  sensations.  Here  we 
handle  out-going  nerve-currents  in  whole  groups, 
just  as  there  by  the  action  of  the  ego  we  handle 
incoming  currents  in  whole  groups.  Now  besides 
this  integrating  there's  a  process  of  differentiat- 
ing— a  separating — and  an  analysing  which  you 
must  understand  in  order  to  have  a  clear  idea 
of  how  we  think. 

We  may  describe  it  by  representing  with  cer- 
tain capital  letters,  V-0-I-C-E-M-O-T-H-E-R-M- 
I-L-K,  a  group  of  realities  (phenomena)  which 
the  child  perceiving  as  a  confusion,  reacts  to  on 
the  first  occasion  in  a  haphazard  way.  When 
these  same  phenomena  become  know  to  the  child, 
they  are  known  only  thru  exciting  in  him  certain 
echoes  of  sensations  and  of  responsive  actions  on 
his  part  (noumena  or  ideas)  which  we  shall  desig- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  97 

nate  by  small  letters,  v-o-i-c-e-m-o-t-h-e-r-m-i-l-k. 

Presently  a  time  comes  when  one  part  of  the 
group  of  phenomena,  say  V-0-I-C-E,  or 
M-0-T-H-E-R,  or  M-I-L-K,  is  manifested  alone. 
It  excites  in  him  immediately  only  the  noumena 
v-o-i-c-e,  or  only  m-o-t-h-e-r,  or  only  m-i-l-k, — and 
by  such  a  process  he  first  comes  to  distinguish 
these  as  not  one  and  inseparable. 

But  also  V-0-I-C-E  has  been  accompanied  so 
frequently  by  M-O-T-H-E-R,  and  M-0-T-H-E-R  so 
frequently  by  M-I-L-K,  that  a  similar  succession 
v-o-i-c-e-m-o-t-h-e-r-m-i-l-k  has  come  to  intercon- 
nect itself  among  the  noumena.  Hence,  if 
V-O-I-C-E  occurs  and  awakes  v-o-i-c-e,  the  other 
noumena  m-o-t-h-e-r  and  m-i-l-k  awaken  auto- 
matically thru  their  forerunner  association  with 
v-o-i-c-e,  and  without  awaiting  the  actual  mani- 
festation of  M-O-T-H-E-R  or  of  M-I-L-K,  and 
this  process  is  what  we  call  Anticipation.  The 
anticipation  is  Logical  if  it  proceeds  step  by  step 
thru  a  long  series  of  middle  terms;  it  is  intui- 
tional if  it  skips  the  middle  term  and  flashes  at 
once  from  premises  to  conclusion — especially  if 
the  premises  themselves  are  of  a  nature  somewhat 
intangible.  The  anticipation  was  Truth  if  ac^ 
tually  thereafter  the  phenomena  M-I-L-K  did 
manifest  themselves.  The  anticipation  was 
Error  if  these  failed  to  materialize. 

If,  as  we  said,  "without  a  brain,  the  'soul'  is 
without  memory,  without  perception  and  without 
reason,"  important  correlaries  follow.  It's  evi- 


98  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

dent  that  all  post-mortem  punishments  or  re- 
wards for  a  soul  bereft  of  power  to  remember 
for  what  it  was  being  punished  or  rewarded,  are 
ridiculous.  It's  equally  plain  that  our  conduct, 
while  we  are  living  upon  this  earth  is  unlikely 
to  add  to  our  souls  any  accretions  of  everlasting 
importance,  whether  accretions  of  wisdom,  or 
of  superiority  to  low  desires,  or  of  ennobling 
traits  of  character,  or  anything  whatsoever.  Nor 
is  it  reasonable  that  our  conduct  (thru  "Karma," 
etc.)  affect  for  better  or  for  worse  the  state  in 
which  we  shall  be  reincarnated  (if  we  are  to  be 
so).  Our  present  conduct,  indeed,  may  make  this 
a  worse  or  a  better  world  to  be  born  into,  when 
our  chance  for  that  comes  around  again,  but  the 
resulting  likelihood  of  betterment  to  our  own  con- 
dition would  be  mighty  slight.  Therefore,  these 
facts  appreciated  by  a  majority  of  mankind  (as, 
unless  false,  they  sooner  or  later  must  come  to  be) 
will  necessitate  profound  alterations  in  our 
methods  of  seeking  to  induce  mankind  to  be  good. 
If  we're  going  to  let  them  go  seeking  a  heaven,  as 
reward  for  their  efforts,  we  must  tell  them  that 
heaven  can  be  only  on  this  earth,  to  remain  upon 
which  seems  to  be  our  destiny  not  only  in  the 
present  life,  but  in  any  future  one.  And  that 
heaven  will  be  a  social  more  than  it  will  be  an 
individual  salvation,  since  no  one  can  control  the 
manner  of  his  especial  reincarnation,  but  can  only 
better  his  chances  by  initiating  currents  of  gen- 
eral betterment  which  will  continue  multiplying 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  99 

and  ramifying  in  this  old  world  until  after  his 
long  death-sleep  he  finds  himself  again  reincar- 
nated here.  For  the  creator  of  paradise  on  a  future 
better  earth  must  be  ourselves,  mankind. 

Surely  this  is  a  wholesome  and  socially  salutory 
conclusion.  Too  long  have  mankind  wasted  in 
fruitless  preparations  for  a  future  state  efforts 
which  might  have  been  fruitful  if  only  applied 
to  mundane  things.  The  speculations  of  meta- 
physics have  resulted  at  best  in  a  gradual  evolu- 
tion of  such  ideas,  or  if  not  precisely  this,  at 
least  a  refining  of  the  language  in  which  we  ex- 
press them.  A  doing  away  with  some  of  the 
misunderstandings  which  confused  the  thinkers 
of  past  ages,  can  be  traced  thruout  all  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  speculation. 

"Some  think  one  generell  soul  fills  every  braine, 


And  others  thinke  the  name  of  soule  is  vaine, 
And  that  we  only  well-mixt  bodies  are."23 

Primitive  people24  if  they  distinguish  the  soul 
from  the  body  at  all,  think  of  it  as  the  body's 
shadow,  or  its  breath.  The  later  Egyptians  first 
imagined  that  the  soul  went  thru  post-mortem 
meanderings,  and  that  it  needed  expensive  priest- 
ly administrations;  other  Oriental  peoples  re- 
tained a  pantheism  which  checked  the  upspring- 


:3Davies,    Sir   J.    Nosce   Teipsum. 

24Taylor,  E.  B.  Primitive  Culture ;  first  edition,  especially  chapter  11 ; 
Marrett,   R.   R.,   The   Threshold   of   Religion ;   Cawley,    A.    E.,    The   Idea 

of  the  Soul. 


100          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ing  among  them  of  mere  individualistic  ideas.  An 
evolution  of  Greek  thot  on  the  subject  may  be 
traced25  thru  Anaxamander  and  Diogenes  of  Ap- 
polonia;  Empedocles  (who  attempted  to  com- 
bine Animism  and  hylozoism),  the  Pytha- 
goreans, such  as  Diacchus,  who  were  interested 
chiefly  in  facilitating,  thru  their  ceremonies,  the 
return  "home"  of  the  soul ;  and  the  Stoics.  Plato 
varies  his  position  considerably.  He  was  the 
first  psychophysical  dualist.-6  Even  by  later 
thinkers,  however,  the  soul  continued  to  be  thot 
of  as  something  like  the  use,  or  at  best  essence, 
of  its  object.  Aristotle  speaks  of  the  "axness" 
of  an  axe,  in  this  way,  tho  Anaxagoras  had  pro- 
gressed to  the  point  of  associating  intelligence 
with  soul. 

It  was  from  Greek,  rather  than  Hebrew, 
sources,  that  Christianity  got  its  ideas,  the  Schol- 
astics combining  Aristotle's  view  with  the  Orien- 
tal notion  of  immortality.  Descartes  for  the 
first  time  seems  to  hit  upon  the  idea  of  a  funda- 
mental duality  in  essence  between  material  and 
spiritual,  which  Spinoza  then  set  himself  to  ex- 
plain away.  Leibnitz  ascribed  souls  to  everything 
in  existence,  and  Berkeley  virtually  said  that  that 
was  all  of  them  that  does  exist.-7  Let  the  reader 
trace  for  himself  the  vagaries  of  most  of  the  em- 
piricists and  Kantians.  Fechner  suggests  that 


"Davies.   Cf. 

20Roberts,   E.   J.    Plato's    View   of  the   Soul.      Mind,    N.    S.,    vol.    14. 

-7A11  the  choir  of  heaven  and  furniture  of  earth  —  —  have  not  any 
subsistence  without  a  mind  -  -  their  being  is  to  be  perceived  or 
known.  Berkeley.  Of  the  Principles  of  Human  Knowledge.  Sec.  4. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          101 

just  as  in  life  Attention  moves  about  from  point 
to  point  within  the  body,  so  after  death  the  soul 
moves  around  the  world. 

That  men  should  speculate  so  deeply  about 
death,  and  come  to  such  strange  unnatural  con- 
clusions about  it  is  understandable  when  we  con- 
sider how  profoundly  many  animals  may  be  ef- 
fected by  the  presence  of  death,  if  made  vivid  to 
them.  Read  Alphonse  Daudet's  "La  Mort  du  Dau- 
phin," in  which  the  little  prince  has  discovered 
that  he  must  die.  We  translate  freely : 

"But  don't  cry,  Madam  Queen ;  you  forget  that 
I'm  the  Dauphin,  and  that  the  Dauphins  don't 
die  in  this  fashion." 

The  Queen  still  cries  more  than  ever,  and  the 
Little  Dauphin  begins  to  be  frightened. 

"Ho!"  says  he,  "I  don't  wish  Death  to  come 
and  take  me,  and  I  know  very  well  how  to  prevent 
him.  Let  forty  very  strong  lansquenets  be  sent 
here  immediately  to  mount  guard  about  our  bed ! 
.  .  .  Let  a  hundred  big  cannons  watch  night  and 
day  under  our  windows,  and  woe  to  Death  if  he 
dare  approach  us!" 

In  order  to  please  the  royal  child,  the  Queen 
gives  the  signal.  Immediately  we  hear  the  big 
cannons  rolling  in  the  court  and  forty  great  lan- 
squenets, with  haliberds  in  their  hands,  arrange 
themselves  around  the  room.  These  are  grizzled 
old  veterans.  The  Little  Dauphin  claps  his  hands 
on  seeing  them.  He  recognizes  one  of  them  and 
calls. 


102          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

"Lorrain !    Lorrain !" 

The  veteran  takes  a  step  toward  the  bed. 

"I  love  you  very  much,  old  Lorrain,  .  .  .  Just 
let  me  see  your  big  sword.  ...  If  Death  comes  to 
take  me,  you'll  have  to  kill  him,  won't  you?" 

Lorrain  answers,  "Yes,  my  Lord." 

And  two  big  tears  run  down  his  tanned  cheeks. 
At  this  moment  the  almoner  approaches  the  Little 
Dauphin  and  talks  to  him  a  long  time  in  a  low 
voice,  while  showing  him  a  crucifix.  The  Little 
Dauphin  listens  with  a  very  astonished  air,  then, 
suddenly  interrupting  him,  says: 

"I  understand  very  well  what  you  say  to  me, 
Mr.  Abbot;  but  isn't  it  possible  that  my  little 
friend  Beppo  could  die  in  my  place  if  I  gave  him 
a  lot  of  money?"  .  .  .  The  almoner  continues  to 
talk  with  him  in  a  low  voice,  and  the  Little  Dau- 
phin resumes  with  a  great  sigh: 

"All  that  which  you're  telling  me  is  very  sad, 
Mr.  Abbot;  but  one  thing  consoles  me,  and  that 
is  that  up  there  above,  in  the  Paradise  of  the 
Stars,  I  shall  still  be  the  Dauphin.  ...  I  know  that 
the  good  God  is  my  cousin,  and  could  not  fail  to 
treat  me  according  to  my  rank." 

Then  he  adds,  turning  toward  his  mother: 

"Let  them  bring  me  my  handsomest  clothes,  my 
white  ermine  doublet,  a*nd  my  velvet  slippers.  I 
wish  to  dress  myself  up  for  the  angels  and  to 
enter  Into  Paradise  dressed  like  a  Dauphin." 

A  third  time  the  almoner  leans  toward  the  Lit- 
tle Dauphin  and  talks  to  him  in  a  very  low  voice. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          103 

In  the  midst  of  his  discourse  the  royal  child  in- 
terrupts angrily: 

"But  then,"  he  cries,  "to  be  Dauphin  is  nothing 
at  all!" 

And  without  wishing  to  hear  anything  more, 
the  Little  Dauphin  turns  toward  the  wall,  and 
cries  bitterly. 

The  point  which  we  have  reached  now  neces- 
sitates a  frank  discussion  of  the  old  problem  of 
determinism  versus  free-will.  Among  the  fierce 
controversies  which  have  vexed  men's  minds  since 
time  immemorial,  that  which  has  raged  about  the 
so-called  "Freedom  of  the  Will"  has  been  not  the 
least. 

The  following  definition  is  found  in  the  Cyclo- 
pedia Brittanica,  llth  Edition:  "Determinism  in 
Ethics  the  name  given  to  the  theory  that  all  moral 
choice,  so  called,  is  the  determined  or  necessary 
result  of  psychological  and  other  conditions.  It 
is  opposed  to  the  various  doctrines  of  Free  will, 
known  as  voluntarism,  libertarianism,  indeter- 
minism.  .  .  " 

Another  and  helpful  definition  is  that  given  by 
Dr.  L.  C.  Givler  (The  Conscious  Cross-section,  pp. 
371-373) .  "Purpose  is  the  maintaining  of  a  motor 
pattern  in  the  midst  of  various  environments.  .  .  . 
It  includes  the  element  of  choice. . .  . 

"The  will  is  characterized  as  the  dominant  pur- 
pose in  the  individual  ...  if  we  but  analyze  all 
cases  of  the  will,  we  find  that  the  thing  done,  the 
thing  willed,  is  the  most  constant  response  to  that 


104          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

environment  of  which  the  person  is  capable.  The 
divided  inconstant  person  alone  boasts  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  will  that  is  inside  of  him.  The  rest' 
of  humanity  are  even  now  falling  into  the  habit 
of  desiring  to  be  predictable.  The  honesty  of 
the  bankers,  lawyers,  merchants,  and  other  per- 
sons of  the  social  mele  is  just  this  predictability 
of  their  actions  before  they  are  fully  functioned." 
In  spite  of  notable  exceptions,  it  is  essentially 
the  Free  will  position  which  in  the  Occident  has 
been  connected  with  the  religious  way  of  thinking. 
Here  the  array  of  names  is  imposing.  Chrisos- 
tom,  who  gave  "choice  to  man  and  fulfillment  to 
God;"  Clement;  Cyril  of  Jerusalem;  Antiochus 
who  said  "faithfulness  is  a  matter  of  self-resolu- 
tion," in  spite  of  grace;  Gregory  of  Nyssa; 
Origen;  Isaac  of  Antioch,  who  held  that  even 
regeneration  was  a  personal  act  of  man,  who  in 
this  was  higher  than  the  angels ;  Tertullian ;  Pe- 
lagius  and  Celestinnus  who  argued  that  without 
freedom  there  could  be  no  guilt;  Duns  Scotus, 
who  made  will  the  only  essence  of  all ;  Albertus 
Magnus ;  Socius,  who  curiously  made  God  like  "a 
wise  pedagogue  who  will  not  scrutinize  too  close- 
ly" ;  Melancthon  so  far  as  it  may  not  resist  the 
Word  and  Holy  Spirit;  Schopenhauer,  who  said 
necessity  is  the  kingdom  of  nature,  but  freedom 
is  the  kingdom  of  grace,  which  has  nothing  in 
common  with  cause  and  effect;  Goethe,  who  de- 
fined freedom  as  the  possibility  of  performing  the 
rational  under  all  circumstances;  A.  Bellinger; 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          105 

Luthart;  and  innumerable  others.  It  is  natural 
to  understand  the  bias  of  theology  in  favor  of 
free  will,  without  which  indeed  theology's  God  is 
loaded  with  the  responsibility  of  all  sin  and  evil. 
Besides  these  theologians,  whose  view  has  al- 
ways small  weight  because  they're  committed  in 
advance  to  defend  their  fundamental  preconcep- 
tions, there  has  been,  however,  a  continuous  suc- 
cession of  lay  philosophers  to  defend  the  free  will 
doctrine.  Thus  Epicurus  consented  to  "the  pre- 
ponderance of  free  moral  practice  to  mere  under- 
standing. To  the  Sophists  "the  measure  of  all 
things"  was  man.  Plato  declared  virtue  un- 
coerced  and  free  and  the  individual  responsible 
for  an  evil  destiny.  Melancthon  thot  we're  free 
up  to  the  point  of  resisting  the  Word  and  Holy 
Spirit.  By  Descartes'  definition  even  intellectual 
error  is  but  an  affirmation  of  ideas  yet  proble- 
matical Malbranche  called  will  the  natural  and 
spontaneous  inclination  to  good.  Leibnitz  in  a 
curious  nescient  analogy  compared  the  will  to  a 
magnetic  needle  obeying  its  "own"  laws.  Hume, 
skeptical,  attacked  the  law  of  causation.  Kant 
declared  "thou  canst  for  thou  shalt."  Shelling 
was  a  free  wilier,  and  J.  F.  Herbart  said, 
"freedom  is  independence,  over  against  causal- 
ity as  collectivity."  Hegel  found  freedom  implied 
in  rational  will.  To  Schopenhauer,  "necessity  is 
the  kingdom  of  nature,  freedom  the  kingdom  of 
grace"  which  had  nought  in  common  with  cause 
and  effect;  this  notion  was  enlarged  upon  by  E. 


106          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

v.  Hartman.  With  Fichte,  his  egoistic  doctrine 
implied  free  will;  and  Leibman  revived  the  doc- 
trine for  those  "who're  not  diverted  by  other  mo- 
tives. To  Goethe,  "Freedom  is  the  possibility  of 
performing  the  rational  under  all  circumstances." 
A  Bellinger  thought  "rational  will  a  potency 
transcending  time/'  and  hence  a  reflection  of 
divine  freedom.  For  Luthardt,  "freedom  results 
with  self  determination  according  to  divinely  pat- 
terned nature."  L.  Clark  was  for  freedom.  T. 
Reid  based  it  upon  the  consciousness  of  power  and 
accountability.  James  considered  "free  will 
nothing  but  real  novelty."  J.  F.  Roys  says  we're 
"free  so  far  as  life  is  unique." 

But  the  authoritarian  argument  from  what 
good  men  and  true  have  believed  about  the  ques- 
tion is  hopelessly  complicated  in  this  case  (as  in 
most  others) )  from  the  differences  of  opinion  as 
among  even  the  religious-minded  by  themselves. 
Out  of  the  nebulous  past,  when  all  thinking  was 
more  or  less  mystical,  come  echoes  of  the  battle, 
in  which  an  indefined  Determinism  is  called  by 
the  religious  term  of  Fate.  Essentially  this  is 
the  doctrine  of  all  the  Orient;  but  it  has  been 
adopted  also  by  many  Occidental  theologians. 
Cyprian  said  that  while  salvation  was  thru  faith, 
yet  even  our  capacity  for  faith  itself  was  thru 
God's  will.  Ambrose  held  that  the  efficacious 
work  of  redemption  requires  that  initiative 
should  come  from  God.  The  council  at  Ephesus 
in  431  rejected  the  Pelagian  protest  (against  Aug- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          107 

ustine)  of  Freedom.  Luther,  in  order  to  stress 
the  need  of  trust  in  divine  grace,  harped  on  the 
impotence  of  our  will.  Calvin  was  absolutely 
against  Free  will.  In  our  own  country  we  had 
an  exampler  of  this  position  in  Johnathan  Ed- 
wards. Outside  religious  circles  the  determinists 
of  course  are  yet  more  numerous.  Of  Greek 
philosophers,  Heraclitus,  Pythagoras  and  the 
Eleatics  were  determinists.  Socrates  at  least 
taught  that  will  is  governed  by  understanding. 
Zeno  postulated  six  mechanisms  by  which  thot 
is  formed,  and  the  Stoic  school  held  that  our  basic 
characters  are  fixed. 

In  modern  times  we  had  wholly  determinist 
philosopher  in  Thomas  Bradwardine,  Albert  of 
Haberstadt,  Spinoza  called  will  a  delusion  due  to 
failure  to  comprehend  absolute  causality.  The 
English  and  French  empiricism  of  the  17th  and 
18th  centuries  culminated  in  such  materialism 
as  that  of  J.  B.  R.  Robinet.  Locke  considered 
that  the  will  is  moved  by  the  greatest  uneasiness. 
David  Hartley  and  Joseph  Priestley  accounted  for 
all  mentality  on  a  basis  of  physiological  neural 
antecedents.  T.  H.  Green  said  that  choice  merely 
expresses  character,  and  given  the  man  and  his 
circumstances,  the  will  is  given. 

The  argument  from  the  number  of  able  think- 
ers who  hold  a  point  of  view  is  always  precarious. 
On  almost  every  subject,  the  earlier  opinions  are 
somewhat,  if  not  almost  completely,  erroneous. 
All  that  is  helpful  to  know  on  that  point  is,  which 


108          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

way  does  the  trend  of  opinion  move?  Do  men 
tend  to  become  more  determinist  or  more  inde- 
terminist  in  their  mode  of  thought?  A  phil- 
osophical opinion,  like  a  religion,  may,  be 
erroneous  and  yet  so  completely  self-consistent  as 
to  survive  the  assaults  of  logic;  but  when  cen- 
turies, perhaps  only  when  milleniums,  of  time 
have  flowed  by,  the  race  gradually  comes  to  a  more 
sober  judgment,  and,  embracing  some  newer,  but 
generally  lesser,  folly,  is  free  to  laugh  at  the  old. 
And  we  think  that  whoever  is  familiar  with  Dra- 
per and  Lecky,  and  in  general  with  the  history 
of  intellect,  must  grant  that  the  development  of 
human  thot  is  away  from  indeterminism  as  it  is 
away  from  animism. 

After  all,  the  older  conception  of  the  soul  has 
an  essentially  animistic  source.  Anthropologists 
now  generally  agree  that  primitive  man's  concep- 
tion of  the  soul  was  a  guess  at  the  origin  of 
dreams  and  other  natural  phenomena  which  we 
now  account  for  better  than  he  could. 

And  as  to  arguments  from  the  chivalry  we  owe 
to  God  not  to  make  Him  culpable  of  the  world's 
crimes,  (the  argument  of  many  theologians 
against  Determinism)  we  may  settle  that  by  re- 
calling that  the  ways  of  God  are  confessedly  in- 
scrutable. HOW  CAN  IT  BE  USEFUL  TO  CON- 
CERN OURSELVES  ABOUT  A  BEING  WHOSE 
WAYS  ARE  INSCRUTABLE? 

It  is  much  more  profitable  for  us  to  take  note 
of  many  pertinent  facts  which  each  of  us  may 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          109 

observe  for  himself,  such  as  the  fluctuations  of 
his  own  morale  according  to  the  state  of  his 
health,  the  climatic  conditions,  etc.  Few  of  us 
feel  as  strong  to  resist  temptation  after  5  P.  M. 
as  earlier  in  the  day,  and  the  crime-records  con- 
firm this  as  a  general  fact.  In  gloomy  weather 
the  statistics  for  suicide  increase;  and  in  spring 
and  summer  immorality  Concealing  memories, 
the  conventions  of  the  stage  in  representing  to- 
gether the  "soul"  plotting  crime  and  nature's  "ele- 
ments" in  turbulence  imply  recognition  that  an 
empathy  here  exists?  Again,  if  will  were  free, 
we  never  could  gage  from  the  appearance  of  a 
crowd  gathered  before  a  church  whether  they'd 
proceed  to  prayers  or  (changing  suddenly  their 
plans)  start  a  riot.  We  should  never  know  the 
appropriate  thing  to  say  to  an  old  friend,  nor 
know  whether  a  given  person  Would  be  suitable  to 
trust  with  an  undertaking  since  his  past  reputa- 
tion and  character  wouldn't  determine  his  conduct 
of  tomorrow. 

In  the  literature  of  the  Psychoanalytic  move- 
ment we  shall  find  much  to  substantiate  our  argu- 
ment for  determinism.  Freud  says2S  "These  con- 
ceptions of  strict  determinism  in  seemingly  ar- 
bitrary actions  have  already  borne  rich  fruit  for 
psychology — perhaps  also  for  the  administration 
of  justice.  Bleuler  and  Jung  have  in  this  way 
made  intelligible  the  reaction  in  the  so-called  as- 
sociation experiments,  wherein  the  test  person 

^Freud — Psychology   of   Everyday    Life,   p.    303. 


110          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

answers  to  a  given  word  with  one  occurring  to 
him  .  .  .  while  the  time  elapsing  ...  is  measured. 
.  .  .  Three  students  of  criminology  H.  Gross  .  .  . 
Wertheimer  and  Klein  have  developed  from  these 
experiments  a  technique  for  the  diagnosis  of 
facts  in  criminal  cases."  This  book  is  more  than 
a  series  of  anecdotes  of  cases  where  mental  events 
apparently  fortuitous  or  "freely"  willed  are  re- 
duced to  mechanically  caused  phenomena.  Freud 
takes  up  systematically  various  types  of  mental 
operation,  and  gives  us  his  experiences  in  analys- 
ing each  kind  as  persons  brot  them  to  him  to  chal- 
lenge the  competence  of  his  hypothesis.  Thus 
his  chapters  include:  (1)  Forgetting  of  Proper 
Names,  (II)  Foreign  Words,  and  (III)  Names 
and  order  of  Words,  (IV)  Concealing  memories, 
(V)  Mistakes  in  Speech  and  (VI)  in  Reading  and 
Writing  (VII) )  Forgetting  Impressions  and 
Resolutions  (VIII)  Erroneously  Carried  Out  Ac- 
tions (IX)  Symtomatic  and  Change  Actions  (X) 
Errors  (XI)  Combined  Faulty  Acts  (XII)  Deter- 
minism Chance  and  Superstitious  Beliefs. 

Freud,  once  speaking  to  a  stranger,  couldn't 
recall  the  name  of  the  painter  Signorelli,  could 
only  think  of  Botticelli  and  Boltraffio.  He  had 
just  been  discussing  the  customs  of  Turks  in  Bos- 
nia and  Herzegovina  and  thot  of  their  remark  to 
physicians  on  the  occasion  of  a  relative's  death 
"Sir  (Herr)  ...  if  he  could  be  saved  you  would 
save  him"  and  their  remark  about  sexual  pleasure 
"Sir  (Herr)  if  that  ceases,  life  no  longer  has  any 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          111 

charm."  But  this  last  theme  he  had  repressed; 
the  death  theme  because  a  patient  had  lately  com- 
mitted suicide,  the  sexual  because  this  patient's 
malady  was  sexual  and  because  the  theme  was  too 
intimate  to  discuss  with  a  stranger.  This  double- 
repression  on  the  word  Sir  (Herr)  and  which 
had  been  occasioned  by  the  word  Herzegovina, 
caused  repression  of  the  equivalent  signer  of  Sig- 
norelli,  so  that  he  united  the  Bo  of  Bosnia  to  form 
Botticelli  and  Boltraffio. 

A  young  man  who  was  bemoaning  to  Freud  that 
the  Jewish  race  was  prevented  from  realizing  its 
ambitions  and  desires  concluded  with  the  verse  in 
which  Dido  leaves  her  vengeance  upon  Aeneas  to 
posterity;  but  he  omitted  from  it  the  word  Ali- 
quis.  This  omission  he  challenged  Freud  to  ex- 
plain. His  associations  with  Aliquis  were  reliq- 
ues-liquidation-liquidity-fluid.  Then  a  relique  he 
had  seen  of  St.  Simon.  Then  several  saints  of  the 
calendar  ending  with  St.  Januarius,  whose  blood, 
preserved  in  a  phial  in  Naples,  miraculously  liqui- 
fies on  a  certain  holiday.  During  the  French  oc- 
cupation the  blood  was  slow  in  liquifying,  much 
to  the  excitement  of  the  people,  until  Garibaldi 
pointed  out  to  the  priest  the  soldiers  arrayed 
without  and  expressed  hope  the  miracle  would 
soon  take  place — which  it  then  did.  The  next 
association  was  only  seemingly  irrelevant  "a  wom- 
an from  whom  I  could  .  .  .  get  a  message  .  .  .  an- 
noying to  us  both"  Namely,  "that  she  missed  her 
courses  ?"  Freud  rightly  guessed.  For  when  the 


112          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

speaker,  deploring  the  wrongs  of  his  people,  had 
quoted  Dido's  wish  that  a  new  generation  would 
take  the  vengeance  on  itself,  he  was  interrupted 
by  the  thot  "Do  you  really  wish  .  .  .  for  posterity? 
Just  think  ...  if  you  now  .  .  .  must  expect  pos- 
terity from  the  quarter  you  have  in  mind !" 

"Feeling  of  conviction  that  there  is  a  free  will 
.  .  .  exists,  but  .  .  .  must  be  justified  .  .  .  does  not 
manifest  itself  in  weighty  and  important  deci- 
sions ;  on  these  occasions  one  has  much  more  the 
feeling  of  a  psychic  compulsion  and  gladly  falls 
back  upon  it.  (Of  Luther's  "Here  I  stand,  I  can- 
not do  anything  else.") 

"Many  things  obtrude  themselves  on  conscious- 
ness in  paranoia  which  in  normal  and  neurotic 
persons  can  only  be  demonstrated  thru  psycho- 
analysis as  existing  in  their  unconscious. 

"Dr.  Ferenczi  reports  that  he  was  a  distracted 
person  .  .  .  considered  peculiar  by  his  friends  on 
account  of  the  frequency  and  strangeness  of  his 
failing.  But  the  signs  of  this  inattention  have 
almost  all  disappeared  since  he  began  to  practise 
psychoanalysis  with  patients,  and  was  forced  to 
turn  his  attention  to  the  analysis  of  his  own  ego. 
He  believes  that  one  renounces  these  failings  when 
one  learns  to  extend  by  so  much  one's  own  re- 
sponsibilities. He  therefore  justly  maintains  that 
distractedness  is  a  state  which  depends  on  un- 
conscious complexes,  and  is  curable  by  psycho- 
analysis. One  day  he  was  reproaching  himself 
for  having  committed  a  technical  error  in  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          113 

psychoanalysis  of  a  patient,  and  on  this  day  all 
his  former  distractions  reappeared.  He  stumbled 
while  walking  in  the  street  (a  representation  of 
that  faux  pas  in  the  treatment),  he  forgot  his 
pocket-book  at  home,  he  was  a  penny  short  in  his 
car  fare,  he  did  not  properly  button  his  clothes, 
etc."-9 

The  recent  experiences  of  psychiatrists  with 
the  war-neuroses — so-called  "shock  cases" — con- 
firms the  deterministic  conception  of  mental  proc- 
esses. Among  the  statements  in  the  March,  1919, 
Atlantic  Monthly  by  F.  W.  Parsons  are  many 
such  as  this :  "A  soldier  overreaches  in  an  effort 
to  forget  painful  experiences,  and  forgets  his 
name,  organization,  and  occasionally  all  the  facts 
of  his  early  life,  reverting  to  an  infantile  state. 
If  his  reaction  is  infantile,  he  is  in  effect  an  infant, 
and  infants  do  not  fight — obviously  the  fulfillment 
of  a  wish.  Such  states  are  transitory  episodes, 
the  changes  from  a  lisping,  toy-playing  infantile 
state  to  a  normal  adult  reaction  taking  place 
within  a  few  days,  the  condition  having  lasted 
from  a  few  weeks  to  several  months." 

Freud's  above  cases,  and  innumerable  others 
like  them  seem  to  place  psychic  events  among  those 
which  obey  strictly  the  rule  of  causality.  And 
what  more  is  it  to  say  this,  after  all,  than  to  in- 
clude them  within  the  category  of  all  things  na- 
tural? A  boy's  top  takes  its  spinning  course  over 
the  ground  which  couldn't  have  been  predicted 


-"From  Psychopathology  of  Every  Day  Life  by  Sigmund  Freud,  p.  166. 


114         PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

from  a  knowledge  of  the  few  merely  obvious  fac- 
tors involved,  such  as  lay  of  the  land  and  material 
of  which  the  top  is  made.  Do  you  thence  con- 
clude that  the  top's  course  is  in  the  least  independ- 
ent of  material  causes?  If  not,  why  deem  that 
the  case  is  otherwise  with  yourself?  If  we  were 
the  top,  doubtless  we  should  say  "My  sense  of  un- 
constraint  in  spinning  assures  me  that  I  am  a 
free  agent.  The  air  vainly  blows  against  me  as 
I  continue  my  course.  Vainly  the  pebbles  get 
in  my  way — I  scatter  them  in  all  directions! 
Whatever  I  have  a  turn  to  do,  that  I  do.  For  my 
will  is  free!" 

Truly  we  are  free  only  as  the  spinning  top  is 
free.  That  effects  follow  solely  after  causes  me- 
chanically adequate  to  produce  them  holds  good 
without  exception  thruout  the  whole  world — and 
an  admission  of  this  invariability  is  the  keystone 
in  the  arch  of  the  mathematics  and  the  sciences, 
upon  which  rests  the  human  mind's  mastery  over 
matter.  We  daren't  pull  out  that  great  keystone 
truth  for  so  small  a  reason  as  that  somebody's 
petty  system  of  morals  is  made  by  a  falsehood  by 
it.  A  million  times  young  investigators  in  physics 
and  in  chemistry  have  tried  to  disprove  that  every 
smallest  divisible  unit  of  present  energy  exists 
as  it  is  solely  because  of  an  equivalent  unit  in  the 
past, — they  have  tried  and  always  in  vain.  The 
"law"  of  conservation  of  energy  stands  firm.  Con- 
sequently any  control  exerted  over  physical  ener- 
gies by  a  "soul"  would  have  to  be  exerted  thru 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          115 

something  in  the  nature  of  a  frictionless  switch, 
turned  by  that  soul  and  operating  in  the  midst  of 
a  stream  of  physical  energies.  In  order  to  deflect 
physical  energies,  such  a  switch  itself  would  have 
to  belong  to  the  same  universe  of  energies,  and 
to  move  this  switch,  the  soul  also  would  have  to 
belong  to  the  same  universe  of  energies;  that  is 
to  say,  the  soul  would  have  to  belong  to  this  uni- 
verse regarding  which  we  know  that  every  event 
after  being  carefully  investigated  is  but  the  in- 
evitable effect  of  antecedent  causes.  Hence  we've 
not  the  millionth  part  of  justification  for  believ- 
ing that  fiats  of  the  soul  are  other  than  inevitable 
effects  arising  out  of  the  past. 

There  be  persons  known  as  Mystics,  who  claim 
the  laws  which  govern  life  are  inscrutable.  Akin 
to  them  be  these  believers  in  "freedom  of  will," 
whose  tenet  is,  that  tho  we  were  to  ken  before 
the  event,  all  the  fixt  causes  of  a  man's  action, 
still  we  couldn't  say  positively  what  his  act  would 
be;  cause  and  effect  hold  sway  over  the  material 
world  alone  and  don't  hold  true  in  the  world  of 
spirit. 

But  if  a  man's  acts  weren't  determined  a  billion 
years  before  he  was  born,  there's  chaos  in  the 
cosmos,  for  if  there's  a  cranny  in  the  whole  uni- 
verse in  which  purely  uncaused  things,  whether 
volitions  or  sorceries,  can  find  lodgement,  that 
cranny  is  a  cavern  which  may  undermine  the  firm- 
est ground  we  build  on.  If  there  exists,  any- 
where, a  fountain  of  pure  hazard,  it  will  wash 


116          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

away  every  structure  founded  upon  positive 
knowledge,  and  sweep  us  again  into  the  bog  of 
superstition  and  witchcraft.  However  small  the 
leak  in  the  dyke,  if  no  man  can  check  it,  it  ends 
in  inundation. 

"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them"  was  the 
test  suggested  by  a  great  ethical  reformer.  Apply 
this  test  to  the  loose  credulous,  animistic  thinking 
of  the  past,  and  see  its  fruit  in  the  hardly  pro- 
gressing civilizations  of  the  Orient,  with  their 
swarming  populations  suffering  under  a  rotation 
of  pestilence,  war,  famine,  and  grinding  labor. 
Apply  it  to  the  close-knit  skeptical,  mechanistic 
thinking  which  is  modern  science,  and  see  the 
populations  reduce  their  birth-rate,  disease  suc- 
cumb to  sanitation,  war  coming  into  disrepute, 
famine  unknown,  and  labor  shortening  its  hours. 

Indeed,  unless  our  conduct  is  determined  by 
something  more  calculable  than  "free"  whim,  then 
of  what  possible  use  can  be  all  these  discussion! 
of  conduct?  As  matter  of  fact,  only  because  of 
determinism  is  it  worth  while  making  this  or  any 
effort  to  influence  conduct. 

The  simplest  reference  to  our  own  conscious  ex- 
perience convinces  us  that  we're  free  to  will  any- 
thing if  we  conclude  to  will  it.  Therein,  and  in 
an  appeal  to  the  fear  of  introducing  chaos  into 
our  moral  systems  if  we  should  confess  to  the 
truth  of  determinism,  lies  the  whole  case  for  free 
will.  At  a  superficial  glance  it  appears  as  tho 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          117 

that  is  all  to  be  said  on  the  subject.  If  we  feel 
free,  isn't  that  conclusive  that  we  are  free? 

Let's  welcome  the  partial  truth  contained  in 
this  viewpoint,  for  there  undoubtedly  is  a  cer- 
tain truth  contained  therein.  That  truth  is: 
Nothing  oppresses  us,  nothing  crushes  us  down, 
nothing  hurls  us  back  as  we  stand  confidently  on 
the  verge  of  willing.  If  we've  come  so  far  as  to 
conclude  to  will,  we  shall  will. 

There'd  be  much  less  dispute  about  "freedom  of 
the  will"  if  people  would  only  observe  this  dis- 
tinction ;  no  one  tries  to  deny  that  you  and  we  are 
free  to  act  contrary  to  the  influences  affecting  us, 
if  we  choose.  All  that  the  determinist  asks  you 
to  concede  is  (1st)  that  whatever  choice  we  make 
is  an  expression  of  character,  and  (2nd)  that  our 
character  could  only  have  been  just  what  it  was. 
Suppose  you  say  that  a  fiat  of  will  was  given  by 
an  agent  outside  heredity  or  environment,  called 
the  soul;  still  you're  in  no  better  case  for  the 
soul,  too,  acts  in  accord  with  its  own  character, 
doesn't  it?  And  given  just  such  a  soul,  there  had 
to  be  just  such  an  act. 

To  even  admit  so  much,  however,  isn't  to  admit 
that  our  act  of  will  was  uncaused,  or  that  it  could 
have  been  different  from  what  it  was,  unless  those 
causes  also  had  been  different  from  what  they 
were.  True,  that  when  we  are  confidently  on  the 
verge  of  willing,  nothing  then  prevents  us  doing 
so.  Some  previous  series  of  experiences,  however, 
caused  us  to  be  confident  on  the  verge  of  willing, 


118          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

and  but  for  that  cause  we  should  be  standing 
somewhere  else.  Some  cause  has  brot  us  so  far 
as  wishing  to  will,  without  which  cause  we'd 
never  so  have  wished  at  all.  If  the  determining 
causes  aren't  felt  as  hurling  us  back  from  a  de- 
sired goal,  it's  because  those  forces  aren't  sim- 
ply outside  us,  but  within  us,  in  the  form  of  the 
reasons  why  we  desire  that  goal. 

A  man  who  answered  an  advertisement  prom- 
ising, for  one  dollar,  an  infallible  recipe  for  be- 
coming rich,  received  a  neat  card  on  which  was 
engraved  "work  like  the  devil  and  never  spend  a 
cent."  He  was  ashamed  to  complain  that  he  had 
been  defrauded,  for  he  thot  that  indeed  he  had 
received  only  his  deserts  for  imagining  that  there 
existed  a  short-cut  to  wealth. 

But  indeed  the  little  card  was  a  fraudulent 
cheat  in  a  high  degree.  For  tho  it  told  the  man 
what  to  do  to  gain  wealth,  it  failed  to  tell  the  es- 
sential thing,  namely,  how  to  do  what  it  recom- 
mended. 

Every  one  knows  he  can  get  rich  by  continually 
earning  and  never  spending ;  but  both  these  things 
may  require  a  self-control  which  he  lacks.  What 
he  wants  is  not  the  repetition  of  an  already  fa- 
miliar fact,  but  knowledge  of  how  to  overcome 
his  weakness. 

The  present  series  of  essays  has  been  con- 
structed upon  a  principle  exactly  the  opposite  of 
that  of  the  card  in  the  above  story.  That  was  a 
trick  to  defraud  the  first  innocent  who  answered 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          119 

the  advertisement,  without  hope  of  meriting  the 
future  trade  that  would  come  of  his  pleased  rec- 
ommendations. Whereas  we,  on  the  contrary  are 
desirous  of  satisfying  you  with  so  much  benefit 
from  the  course  that  you  will  bring  your  friends 
to  us;  desirous  of  so  impressing  you  with  the 
value  of  what  is  to  be  gained  from  this  contact 
that  you  will  wish  to  continue  the  relationship 
by  joining  an  association  of  people  leagued  to- 
gether for  mutual  support  in  living  their  princi- 
ples set  forth  in  these  lessons.  To  accomplish 
this  end,  we'll  try  to  avoid  ever  telling  you  what 
to  do  whilst  leaving  you  uncertain  of  how  to  go 
about  it. 

But  first  you  must  of  course  try  really  hard  to 
conquer  each  obstacle  without  the  aid  of  anyone 
but  yourself.  Only  that  method  will  give  you  a 
sense  of  mastery  and  the  optimism  and  aggres- 
siveness which  results  from  experience  of  ob- 
stacles overcome.  Similarly  the  reason  for  hav- 
ing you  answer  some  questions  before  you  read 
the  text,  is  to  stimulate  you  toward  original 
thought  on  the  topics  taken  up.  Afterward,  when 
you  have  read  the  text,  you  should  correct  any 
answers  you  made  to  questions  if  you  feel  they 
were  wrong,  and  by  so  doing  you  are  likely  to 
become  more  exact,  as  the  lessons  continue,  in 
your  way  of  expressing  yourself.  After  all,  it 
is  in  exactness  of  thought  that  the  efficient  man 
differs  from  the  vagarist. 


120          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


SECTION  3 

"Things  of  an  unexperienceable  nature  may 
exist  ad  libitum,  but  they  form  no  part  of  the 
material  for  philosophic  debate."30 

"There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt,  be- 
lieve me,  than  in  half  the  creeds."31 

"The  chemist  or  the  physicist  can  see  how  the 
conclusions  of  his  statements  ought  to  reach  this 
or  that  end,  but  only  the  residues  in  the  retort  or 
the  pattern  of  crystallization  on  the  stone  shows 
him  what  the  upshot  of  his  statements  should 
have  been."32 

The  real  rub  in  all  arguments  upon  and  for 
determinism,  with  most  people,  isn't  intellectual, 
it's  the  feeling  that  if  we  admit  a  fatalistic  ele- 
ment into  our  philosophy  we  take  away  incentive, 
or  else  make  it  unreasonable  for  God,  parents,  or 
magistrates  to  reward  or  blame  people  for  the 
manner  of  their  behavior.  These  are  argumenta 
ad  hominem;  with  a  logician  they  don't  count,  but 
of  every  100  pretended  logicians  in  the  world,  at 
least  99  are  moralists  in  disguise. 

But  why  should  the  incentive  to  act  rightly  be 
less  strong  because  I  know  that  from  the  begin- 
ning of  time  itself  forces  were  converging  which 
inevitably  and  eventually  have  pushed  me  on  to 
just  this  act?  To  be  sure,  some  lazy  lookers-for- 


30Wm.  James. 

31Tennyson,   In  Memoriam. 

a2GivIer,   R.   C. — Conscious   Cross  Section,   p.   16. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          121 

excuses33  will  seize  upon  fate  as  an  apology  for 
their  shortcomings,  but  we  doubt  whether  these 
wouldn't  have  found  another  excuse  in  any  case ; 
anyhow,  they  are  the  persons  whose  actions  are 
of  least  consequence  to  the  world.  They  whose 
actions  do  count  are  the  men  and  women,  the 
youths  and  maidens,  whose  lives  are  no  apology, 
but  an  eager  onrush  to  discover  the  utmost  profit 
in  their  opportunities.  We  would  see  a  dozen  weak- 
lings complaining  for  the  want  of  their  crutches, 
rather  than  one  of  these  strong  ones  should  lack 
fire-wood  to  cook  his  dinner.  A  weakling  fallen 
by  the  wayside  touches  our  sympathies,  but  a 
strong  man  down  endangers  the  general  safety. 

Most  assuredly,  people  of  purpose  are  buoyed 
up  and  steeled  against  the  reverses  of  life  by  the 
feeling  that  they  are  no  whimsical  eddies  in  the 
ocean  of  life,  but  a  part  of  its  great  central  cur- 
rent, sweeping  on  irresistibly.  To  the  question, 
"Why  keep  up  the  good  fight?"  they  answer,  "Ask 
the  sun  and  moon  to  halt  in  full  career,  as 
Joshua  is  alleged  to  have  done,  but  as  for  me,  an 
invincible  momentum  compels  me  to>  go  on  and 
on."  We  believe  that  much  of  the  power  of  the 
German  army  can  be  traced  to  a  feeling  among 
its  units,  that  they  are  advance-agents  flung  from 
Heaven's  own  hand  to  scatter  effete  or  barbarous 
people,  and  spread  "das  Kultur."  Napoleon  felt 

^"If  the  will  at  the  opportune  moment  has  not  sought  to  make 
use  of  the  moral  forces  at  its  disposal,  it  is  because  the  ego  .  .  . 
sympathized  with  the  cause  of  temptation,  appropriated  it  to  itself, 
made  it  its  own.  But  this  very  thing  proves  the  evilness  of  the  ego." 
— Tarde. 


122          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

this  sense  of  inner  urgency;34  so  do  you  and  we 
at  times,  all  great  men  do. 

One  feels  that  the  approach  by  Loeb  and  Ver- 
woin  is  essentially  the  promising  approach,  yet 
as  someone  has  objected,  there  still  is  much  to  do 
because  while  we  can  see  why,  e.  g.,  a  current 
causes  certain  responses,  it  remains  almost  as 
hard  as  ever  to  see  why  a  situation  should  do  so. 
We  can  understand  the  tropism  (taxis)  of  an  ani- 
mal toward  a  general  source  of  illumination,  but 
not  its  tropism  (taxis)  toward  the  changing, 
metamorphasing  perceived  image  of  prey  or  of 
its  mate.  To  effect  a  tropism  (taxis)  we  have 
had  hitherto  some  comparatively  simple  unit  ele- 
ment. It  would  seem,  therefore  as  tho  the  psycho- 
physical  mechanism  of  the  animal  must  reduce 
to  terms  of  a  unit  element  the  complex  and  varia- 
ble stimuli  it  receives  from  the  image  of  prey  or 
of  its  mate,  now  full  face  and  now  in  profile,  fall- 
ing now  on  one  portion  of  the  reting  and  now  on 
another.  This  unit  element,  identical  with  the 
meaning  of  the  perception — is  doubtless  comprised 
in  terms  of  the  animal's  own  bodily  reactions  to 
the  situation.  Even  so,  how  is  the  unification, 
whether  of  sensations  or  of  outgoing  reactions, 
achieved  ? 

The  need  of  attempting  some  answer  to  this 


3*"In  men  of  the  world-shaking  type,  the  Napoleons,  Luthers,  etc., 
.  .  .  the  resolution  is  probably  of  this  catastrophic  kind.  The  flood 
breaks  out  quite  unexpectedly  through  the  dam.  That  it  should  so 
often  do  so  is  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  the  tendency  of  these 
characters  to  a  fatalistic  mood  of  mind — and  the  fatalistic  mood  itself 
is  sure  to  reinforce  the  strength  of  the  energy."  p.  533  of  ch.  26, 
vol.  2,  Psychology  by  Wm.  James. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          123 

question  before  we  can  pursue  further  our  pres- 
ent inquiry  is  our  excuse  for  dragging  in  here  a 
short  metaphysical  discussion  of  the  concept  of 
an  "ego."  We  hypothecate  this  "ego"  as  a  small- 
est divisible  unit  of  one  of  the  forms  which  mat- 
ter or  energy  can  assume,  and  that  the  elements 
of  its  sensation  are  its  own  inner  view,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  motions  to  which  it  is  subject.  If 
a  rotation  eastward  meant  to  it  the  sensation  of 
yellow,  a  rotation  northward  meant  redness,  and 
non-rotation  meant  blackness,  then  a  slow  rota- 
tion northeast  meant  the  sensation  of  brown.  Be- 
cause of  the  utility  to  living  forms  of  an  ego, 
we'll  suppose  that  it  is  by  the  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  that  there  have  come  to  exist  the 
existing  fauna  of  the  world  endowed  with  some 
means  of  sucking  to  themselves  at  conception,  and 
holding  magnetized  so  long  as  the  bodily  processes 
endure,  one  of  these  ego  particles,  much  as  a  float- 
ing cork  might  be  drawn  to  a  vortex  in  the  water, 
and  remain  suspended  over  the  center  of  it  so 
long  as  the  motion  continued,  after  which  it  would 
be  released  until  whirled  to  another  vortex  else- 
where in  the  stream.  Our  ego,  like  our  cork  would 
meantime  travel  everywhere  that  the  vortex  trav- 
eled, whilst  retaining  the  same  suspended  posi- 
tion in  the  midst  of  its  activities  and  of  the  inrush 
and  outrush  of  so  many  gallons  of  material  sub- 
stance. 

Meantime  what  function  would  it  subserve? 
Merely  being  conscious  to  itself,  the  ego  would 


124          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

contribute  nothing  giving  it  a  survival  value  in 
the  economy  of  the  animal  host.  It  might  how- 
ever be  of  value  if  while  of  itself  as  inert  as  the 
cork  in  the  whirlpool  it  partook  of  the  whirl- 
pool movements,  with  all  their  tremulous  modifi- 
cations, of  the  flood  of  currents  within  the  brain 
cortex,  and  also  in  turn  reacted  upon  these  by  its 
own  inertia. 

In  another  analogy,  we  may  suppose  that  the 
ego  is  like  a  pool  of  liquid  into  which  various  col- 
ored lights  from  as  many  respective  nerve  cen- 
ters play,  and  which  absorbs  and  blends  all  these 
different  hues,  soxthat  it  reflects  back  to  the  neu- 
rons a  light  of  different  tinge  from  any  one  which 
it  received,  because  it  is  a  unification  of  many. 
But  perhaps  the  best  analogy  I  can  give  is  the 
following:  We  know  how  electric  currents  in  a 
helix  may  draw  into  the  center  of  the  helix  and 
suspend  there  a  piece  of  iron.  We  know  that  not 
only  the  movements  of  the  iron  respond  to  fluctua- 
tions in  the  electric  current,  but  that  the  move- 
ments of  the  iron  in  turn  effect  alterations  of  the 
current  within  the  wire  of  the  helix.  Similarly, 
fluctuations  of  nervous  current  might  be  induced 
among  the  neurons  Of  the  brain  cortex  by  the 
inert  bobbing  about  of  an  ego  suspended  without 
contact  somewhere  among  them,  and  of  which 
the  momentum  had  been  imparted  by  previous 
currents  among  those  same  neurons. 

But  let  us  leave,  now,  these  meta-physical  con- 
cepts, which  have  served  their  purpose  if  they 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          125 

in  any  way  make  it  easier  to  bridge  the  gap  be- 
tween Loeb's  tropisms  and  Verworn's  taxis  mech- 
anisms to  the  concept  of  Woodworth  and  others 
of  certain  fundamental  drives,  such  as  hunger, 
sex,  etc.,  and  in  which  in  each  case  the  first  part 
of  the  act  is  recognition,  easier  to  bridge  the 
gap  between  Loeb's  tropisms  and  Verworn's 
taxis  mechanisms  to  the  concepts  of  Woodworth 
and  others,  of  certain  fundamental  drives,  such 
as  hunger,  sex,  etc.,  and  in  which  in  each  case 
the  first  part  of  the  act  is  recognition.  The  theory 
of  evolution  now  is  the  basis  of  all  the  biological 
sciences,  now  established  so  soundly  that  to  be 
heralded  by  the  newspapers  as  having  "over- 
thrown" it  is  a  notoriety  attained  by  a  perpetual 
succession  of  dabblers  in  every  science;  and  now 
so  tacitly  accepted  by  all  that  every  Religion — al- 
ways at  first  the  opponent  of  new  truth — today 
hunts  and  "reinterprets"  its  scriptures  for  evi- 
dence that  evolution  was  taught  by  it  from  the 
beginning.  To  question  this  great  hypothesis  is 
today  less  a  proof  of  independent  thinking  than 
a  confession  of  unfamiliarity  with  the  evidence; 
but  the  credit  for  all  this  is  due  to  a  change  in 
our  method  of  proof. 

The  arguments  of  the  ancient  philosophers, 
both  Oriental  and  European,  were  frequently 
subtle  and  abstruse,  but  to  a  sophisticated  mod- 
ern, they  appear  wholly  childish.  Today  we  find  a 
firmer  argument  for  evolution  in  convergence  of 
inductive  testimony  from  many  separate  sources. 


126          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

In  astronomy  the  nebular  (evolutionary)  hypo- 
thesis was  arrived  at  independently  by  the  mathe- 
matics of  La  Place  and  the  searchings  of  Lavoi- 
sier; it  is,  moreover,  supported  by  the  spectro- 
scopic  analysis  which  shows  similarity  of  composi- 
tion of  nebulae  and  stars  thruout  the  heavens,  and 
by  the  uniform  direction  of  rotation  and  the  re- 
spective sizes  and  temperatures  of  satellites.  In 
geology  proof  of  the  world's  age  since  water  could 
exist  on  it  in  liquid  state,  and  of  evolutionary 
processes  at  work,  is  uniform  from  the  nature  of 
successive  layers  of  the  earth,  crust,  the  erosion  of 
rocks,  and  the  quantity  of  salt  thus  far  dissolved 
by  its  waters;  this  time  period  (50,000,000  to 
90,000,000)  is  in  remarkable  agreement  with 
what  is  required  for  the  evolutionary  process  by 
other  sciences.  Ornithology  shows  that  in  the 
successively  deeper  and  necessarily  earlier- 
formed  strata  of  rock,  lie  embedded  bones  of 
ever  more  simply-organized  animals;  that  the 
modifications  of  structure  are  gradual  from  the 
upper,  more  recent  forms  resembling  animals  now 
living  to  the  extinct  creatures  of  the  age-old  past ; 
and  that  as  we  go  backward  the  multiplicity  di- 
minishes and  we  approach  a  common  ancestry  for 
the  most  diverse  present  types,  just  as  in  ascend- 
ing a  tree  the  twigs  at  the  top  are  seen  to  be 
sprung  from  common  branches  and  eventually 
form  a  single  trunk.  The  Distribution  of  animal 
types  is  not  haphazard,  nor  do  similar  species 
necessarily  inhabit  regions  similar  in  climate,  but 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          127 

the  distribution  is  well  accounted  for  by  suppos- 
ing that  an  evolutionary  process  was  in  progress 
whilst  continents  and  islands  were  being  formed, 
separated,  or  connected  at  the  times  specified  by 
geologists.  The  Classification  of  animals  extant 
today  according  to  their  degrees  of  resemblance 
is  explainable  only  if  the  resembling  groups  are 
descended  from  less  or  more  remote  common  an- 
cestry. The  argument  from  the  Structure  of  Ani- 
mals is  borne  out  too  from  the  fact  that  quite 
similar  types  will  interbreed,  and  that  between 
slightly  more  removed  types  transfusion  of  blood 
is  possible.  Embriology  calls  attention  to  a  par- 
allel between  ontogenesis  and  philogenesis  which 
is  surely  significant.  The  hypothesis  of  an  evo- 
lutionary origin  of  species  and  descent  of  man 
was  substantiated  with  observations  enormous  in 
amount  though  often  anecdotally  unscientific  or 
even  credulous  in  character,  by  Charles  Darwin; 
and  by  him,  simultaneously  with  Herbert  Spencer, 
provided  with  an  explanation  which  renders  the 
process  comprehensible — the  doctrine,  as  since 
modied  by  de  Vries,  that  thru  some  accidental  in- 
fluence upon  the  reproductive  cells,  an  animal 
occasionally  is  born  with  an  inheritable  muta- 
tion (say  a  modified  pair  of  limbs)  or  an  impul- 
sion toward  some  type  of  conduct;  in  some  few 
cases  the  mutation  will  be  of  nature  equipping 
the  animal  better  to  find  food,  say,  or  foil  its  ene- 
mies ;  finally  the  result  will  be  that  these  favored 
animals,  as  the  more  fit  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 


128          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ence,  will  leave  more  progeny  to  inherit  their 
characteristics  (including  the  new  mutation)  than 
will  their  competitors.  Thus,  by  accumulation 
of  new  mutations,  new  species  originate  upon  the 
earth  in  profusion,  replacing  their  fewer,  more 
simple  predecessors.  Though  the  span  of  man's 
recorded  history  is  infinitessimal  in  the  time  dur- 
ing which  this  process  has  been  going  on,  and 
though  to  look  for  noticeable  changes  in  forms 
during  that  time  is  as  though  within  its  own  life- 
time a  fly  should  ask  to  see  the  changes  in  girth 
of  an  aged  tree,  even  so  we  do  sometimes  see 
small-scale  modifications  in  animal  species  occur- 
ring before  our  eyes  at  least  where  man  usurps 
nature's  place  as  selector  and  breeder.  But  when 
we  say  that  "nature  breeds  for"  greater  beauty 
or  skill  or  group  solidarity  or  whatever,  that  is 
only  our  convenient  expression  for  the  fact  that 
in  a  particular  case  these  qualities  increase  the 
chances  of  survival  of  the  group  of  animals  they 
characterize.  Evidences  of  intention  and  a  goal 
in  the  workings  of  nature,  or  of  a  benevolent  dis- 
position toward  her  creatures,  have  been  read 
into  her  by  devout  men,  rather  than  read  out  of 
her  by  scientic  men. 

Science  has  been  called  organized  knowledge. 
But  many  of  the  ideas  of  the  ancients — and  they 
couldn't  see  but  those  ideas  were  "knowledge" — 
were  organized  even  to  the  point  of  becoming  fine- 
spun metaphysical  systems.  Science  is  even  more 
a  method,  a  discipline.  The  pseudo-scientist 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          129 

notes  only  evidence  for  his  theory  and  suppresses 
or  ignores  all  against ;  the  idealized  scientist  gath- 
ers all  evidence  indifferently  and  then  frames  the 
hypothesis  which  seems  to  be  indicated  and  which 
does  violence  to  no  fact.  For  the  former  is  moved 
by  desire  for  notoriety  or  at  best  by  fanatic  or 
patriotic  desire  to  justify  a  preconceived  theory; 
the  latter  is  moved,  if  not  by  innate  curiosity 
after  the  facts,  at  least  by  the  desire  to  figure  in 
the  eyes  of  posterity  as  one  who  judged  carefully; 
"most  men  wish  to  have  truth  on  their  side,  but 
few  care  to  be  on  the  side  of  truth."  The  pseudo- 
scientist,  in  a  corner,  will  even  pretend  that  evi- 
dences for  his  theory  are  withheld  from  the  vul- 
gar, but  are  accessible  to  those  like  himself  who 
have  special  gifts  or  have  achieved  thru  study 
and  ascetic  practices  to  superhuman  powers ;  but 
the  true  scientist  is  democratic,  and  invites  critics 
to  witness  the  experiments,  and  repeat  the  meas- 
urements, upon  which  he  bases  his  conclusions. 
The  pseudo-scientist  seeks  to-  astonish  his  public 
with  the  bizarre  or  even  the  super-natural;  but 
the  true  man  of  science  is  he  who  tries  to  ex- 
plain the  complex  in  terms  of  the  simple,  the  mys- 
terious in  terms  of  the  familiar,  and  is  inevitably 
a  skeptic  as  regards  the  supernatural.  In  always 
maintaining  this  attitude,  the  typical  scientist 
may  be  called  biassed.  But  it  is  the  bias  at  least 
of  experience.  The  credulous  animistic  way  of 
thinking  was  the  old-world  way;  what  progress 
either  material  or  spiritual  can  it  claim?  The 


130          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

skeptical,  mechanistic  way  of  thinking  is  essen- 
tially the  modern  way;  its  resultant  material 
progress  looms  on  every  hand,  and  its  application 
to  the  moral  field  will  result  in  progress  at  least 
as  great.  Every  great  reformer  has  been  less 
supernaturalist  than  his  age. 

So  let  each  one  for  himself  dare  to  explore  the 
unknown.  Let  him  like  a  new  Columbus  bring 
his  barkentines  over  the  curly-waved  horizon  of 
blue  Ocean,  to  the  discovery  mayhap  of  a  new 
world.  The  free  wind  that  fills  the  bellying  sails 
is  no  more  free  than  the  spirit  of  such  a  cap- 
tain. 

"No  other  pleasure  is  comparable  to  standing 
upon  the  vantage-ground  of  truth."  And  the  proc- 
ess of  attaining  to  such  truth  is  as  zestf  ul  as  any 
physical  exploration.  Memory  takes  us  back  to  the 
time  when  as  a  boy  we  led  a  party  to  the  discovery 
of  a  cave  that  we  had  sighted  in  the  mountains. 
Early  was  the  hour  when  we  forsook  our  beds  to 
commence  our  journey  under  the  still  glimmering 
stars  before  the  dawn.  Hot  grew  the  sun  when 
afternoon  found  us  still  toiling  up  the  laborious 
flanks  of  mountain  and  precipice,  still  uncertain 
whether  our  route  would  lead  to  any  conclusion. 
But  at  last  our  doubts  were  dispelled  as  we  swung 
into  full  view  of  the  yawning  cavern;  a  last 
scramble  up  the  heap  of  granite  detritus,  and  we 
entered  its  cool  shade.  Then  we  looked  back 
upon  the  toilsome  ascent  that  had  taken  so  many 
hours,  and  felt  that  it  was  worth  while.  None 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          131 

but  the  aboriginal  Indians  had  attained  to  this 
place  before  us. 

Since  then  we  have  explored  many  places,  and 
have  lost  that  feeling  that  we  must  be  absolutely 
the  first  who  ever  trod  the  native  heath.  It  is  no 
longer  anything  that  millions  have  been  there  be- 
fore us,  so  long  as  to  our  own  experience  the  ad- 
venture comes  as  new. 

Standing  once  on  Tiger  Hill  in  the  Himalayas, 
we  were  grateful  that  others  had  already  seen, 
had  told  the  story  of  its  wonders  till  it  reached 
our  far  off  ears,  and  had  built  this  turret  on  its 
summit  with  the  charts  identifying  all  the  neigh- 
boring peaks.  All  around,  below,  rolled  cloud- 
land's  billowy  ocean,  pearl-colored  in  its  troughs, 
its  crests  and  sprays  touched  pink  with  the  flush 
of  dawn.  This  downy  sea  drifted  in  wraiths  past 
us,  sometimes  engulfing  too  our  scant  fire ;  again 
it  ebbed  down,  leaving  our  island  stark  in  con- 
trast above  its  whiteness.  Once  as  it  ebbed,  the 
sun's  disk  showed  clear  on  the  horizon;  and  op- 
posite, a  glittering  ice  peak  like  a  diamond 
sparkled  in  that  first  ray.  Then,  thanks  to  the 
chart,  which  earlier  comers  had  erected,  we  knew 
that  this  was  Kichenjunga,  28,000  feet  above  the 
sea.  As  the  cloud  floor  ebbed  further,  its  mas- 
sive ice-crest  higher  soared,  the  white  cloud-land 
becoming  gray  by  comparison  with  its  ineffable, 
celestial  purity.  Imagination  staggered  at  the 
picture !  Yet  we  waited  for  a  sight  of  a  still  more 
stupendous  mountain  —  Everest  —  which  we 


132          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

should  know  by  its  resemblance  to  the  picture  on 
that  panoramic  chart  upon  the  tower.  Three 
rounded  peaks  scarcely  visible  in  the  far  distance 
— for  then  we  still  scanned  the  mists.  Meantime 
rents  and  rifts  appeared  in  the  cloud  floor,  thru 
which  we  looked  awe-struck  down  into  dark  green 
depths  of  warm  valleys,  thousands  and  thousands 
of  feet  beneath  that  sea,  as  when  one  peers  down 
thru  the  flat  lily-pads  and  sees  under  the  clear 
water  the  bottom  of  the  pool.  But  the  rifts  closed 
again,  and  we  peered  forth  over  the  surface,  and 
thot  we  saw  for  one  moment — but  never  shall  be 
sure — far  in  the  distance,  across  the  cloud  sea, 
three  close-clustered  glittering  islands. — Everest. 

The  reason  we've  placed  so  much  emphasis  in 
this  chapter  upon  the  ideal  of  science  is  that  until 
mankind  have  not  merely  information  but  real 
love  of  truth  and  willingness  to  submit  to  truth's 
discipline,  little  progress  can  be  made  toward  any 
other  goal.  Love  of  truth  comes  before  loyalty 
to  the  doctrine  or  the  organization. 

Referring  to  the  defences  of  the  old  creeds 
Lecky  argues : 

"If  it  is  said  that  plagues  or  pestilences  are  sent 
as  a  punishment  of  error  or  of  vice,  the  assertion 
must  be  tested  by  a  comprehensive  examination 
of  the  history  of  plagues  on  one  hand,  and  of 
periods  of  great  vice  and  heterodoxy  on  the  other. 
If  it  be  said  that  an  influence  more  powerful  than 
any  military  agency  directs  the  course  of  battles 
the  action  of  this  force  must  be  detected  as  we 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          133 

would  detect  electricity,  or  any  other  force,  by 
experiment.  If  the  attribute  of  infallibility  be 
ascribed  to  a  particular  Church,  an  inductive 
reasoner  will  not  be  content  with  enquiring  how 
far  an  infallible  Church  would  be  a  desirable 
thing,  or  how  far  certain  ancient  words  may  be 
constructed  as  a  prediction  of  its  appearance ;  he 
will  examine,  by  a  wide  and  careful  survey  of 
ecclesiastical  history,  whether  this  Church  has  ac- 
tually been  immutable  and  consistent  in  its  teach- 
ing; whether  it  has  never  been  affected  by  the 
ignorance  or  passion  of  the  age;  whether  its  in- 
fluence has  uniformly  exerted  on  the  side  which 
proved  to  be  true ;  whether  it  has  never  supported 
by  its  authority  scientific  views  which  were  after- 
wards demonstrated  to  be  false,  or  countenanced 
and  consolidated  popular  errors,  or  thrown  ob- 
stacles in  the  path  of  those  who  were  afterwards 
recognized  as  the  enlighteners  of  mankind.  If 
ecclesiastical  deliberations  are  said  to  be  espe- 
cially inspired  or  directed  by  an  illuminating  and 
supernatural  power,  we  should  examine  whether 
the  councils  and  convocations  of  clergymen  ex- 
hibit a  degree  and  harmony  of  wisdom  that  can- 
not reasonably  be  accounted  for  by  the  play  of 
our  unassisted  faculties.  If  institutions  are  said 
to  owe  their  growth  to  special  supernatural  agen- 
cies, distinct  from  the  ordinary  system  of  natural 
laws,  we  must  examine  whether  their  courses  are 
so  striking  and  so  peculiar  that  natural  law  fails 
to  explain  them.  Whenever,  as  in  the  case  of  a 


134          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

battle,  very  many  influences  concur  to  the  result, 
it  will  frequently  happen  that  that  result  will 
baffle  our  predictions.  It  will  also  happen  that 
strange  coincidences,  such  as  the  frequent  recur- 
rence of  the  same  number  in  a  game  of  chance, 
will  occur.  But  there  are  limits  to  these  varia- 
tions from  what  we  regard  as  probable.  If,  in 
throwing  the  dice,  we  uniformly  attained  the 
same  number,  or  if  in  war  the  army  which  was 
destitute  of  all  military  advantages  was  uni- 
formly victorious,  we  should  readily  infer  that 
some  special  cause  was  operating  to  produce  the 
result.  We  must  remember,  too,  that  in  every 
great  historical  crisis  the  prevalence  of  either 
side  will  bring  with  it  a  long  train  of  conse- 
quences, and  that  we  only  see  one  side  of  the  pic- 
ture. If  Hannibal,  after  his  victory  at  Cannae, 
had  captured  and  burnt  Rome,  the  vast  series  of 
results  that  have  followed  from  the  ascendancy  of 
the  Roman  Empire  would  never  have  taken  place, 
but  the  supremacy  of  a  maritime,  commercial  and 
comparatively  pacific  power  would  have  produced 
an  entirely  different  series,  which  would  have 
formed  the  basis  and  been  the  essential  condition 
of  all  the  subsequent  progress ;  a  civilization,  the 
type  and  character  of  which  is  now  impossible  to 
conjecture,  would  have  arisen,  and  its  theologians 
would  probably  have  regarded  the  career  of  Han- 
nibal as  one  of  the  most  manifest  instances  of 
special  interposition  on  record. 

"If  we  would  form  sound  opinions  on  these  mat- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          135 

ters,  we  must  take  a  very  wide  and  impartial  sur- 
vey of  the  phenomena  of  history.  We  must  ex- 
amine whether  events  have  tended  in  a  given 
direction  with  uniformity  or  a  presistence  that 
is  not  naturally  explicable.  We  must  examine 
not  only  the  facts  that  corroborate  our  theory, 
but  also  those  which  oppose  it. 

"That  such  a  method  is  not  ordinarily  adopted 
must  be  manifest  to  all.  As  Bacon  said,  'men 
mark  the  hits,  but  not  the  misses;'  they  collect 
industriously  the  examples  in  which  many,  and 
sometimes  improbable,  circumstances  have  con- 
verged to  a  result  which  they  consider  good,  and 
they  simply  leave  out  of  their  consideration  the 
circumstances  that  tend  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion."35 

The  thotf ul  man,  therefore,  gives  over  all  hopes 
of  supernatural  consolation,  and  schools  himself 
to  meet  facts  as  they  are,  without  seeking  a  false 
refuge.  In  place  of  "pie  in  the  sky  by  and  by"  he 
goes  about  in  an  effective  way  to  make  conditions 
better  on  this  earth;  he  presumes  that  if  he  is 
ever  to  live  again  it  will  foe  on  this  same  old 
planet.  Instead  of  trying,  thru  spirit-mediums, 
to  get  into  communications  with  the  (non-exist- 
ant)  personalities  of  departed  dear  ones,  he  ex- 
erts himself  to  improve  the  world  into  which  they 
and  he  must  (if  ever)  come  again  to  live.  There 
even  are  reasons  of  personal  advantages  why  a 
man  should  become  an  idealist. 


"Lecky,    W.    E.    H.(    History   of   European    Morals. 


136          PHILOSOPHY  OP  HELPFULNESS 

We  don't  say  it's  always  to  man's  personal  ad- 
vantage to  do  a  good  act.  If  a  man  loves  evil, 
performing  a  good  act  mayn't  make  him  either 
healthy,  wealthy  or  wise.  Also,  a  man  truly  good, 
but  who  is  such  only  from  a  sense  of  duty,  may 
live  and  die  friendless  and  miserable, — probably 
will.  But  we  do  say  this :  that  no  other  type  of 
man  is  half  so  happy  as  he  who  is  good  thru 
LOVE  of  goodness.  No  other  CAN  be.  For  as 
a  man  judges  a  tool  to  be  worth  anything,  not 
when  it  is  good  to  itself,  but  good  FOR  SOME- 
THING, just  so  he  inevitably  judges  himself  to 
be  of  use  to  something  greater.  But  who  can  be 
genuinely  happy  without  self-respect? 


SECTION  4 

"Attempt  the  end,  and  never  stand  to  doubt; 
Nothing's  so  hard  but  search  will  find  it  out."36 

In  great  centers  of  civilization,  religion  soon 
becomes  organized  for  the  purpose  of  sanctioning 
laws  and  morals.  "These  attempts  at  religious 
reform — are  interesting — as  showing  the  anxiety 
of  the  human  mind  to  sublimate  its  religious  creed 
to  the  level  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  standard 
it  has  attained,  and  to  make  religious  ordinances 
in  some  degree  the  instruments  of  moral  improve- 
ment."37 What  is  most  striking  to  the  real  spirit 
of  human  helpfulness  of  the  founders,  Christ, 


36Except   in   the   case  of  the   hen   on  the   China   egg. 

37Lecky,   W.  E.    H.,   History   of  European   Morals,   vol.    1,   p.   324. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          137 

Buddha,  etc.?  When  the  moral  or  intellectual 
composition  of  a  group  is  low,  it  has  no  difficulty 
in  dragging  its  religion  down  to  a  corresponding 
level;  a  fact  which  indicates  that  the  rare  cases 
of  genuine  reform  thru  religion  are  of  an  hyp- 
notic nature  and  probably  could  the  connection 
between  religion  and  pure  living  in  the  remaining 
instances  be  known  it  would  be  seen  that  it  was  a 
merely  chance  one ;  if  a  pious  person  is  also  good, 
every  one  praises  God  for  such  a  shining  example 
of  what  is  conceived  to  be  cause  and  effect ;  but  let 
an  atheist  be  equally  good,  and  if  people  find  a 
flaw  in  his  goodness,  they  will  ascribe  that  flaw 
to  his  atheism.  That  superstition  is  dangerous 
to  the  public  weal  thru  promoting  emotionalism 
and  non-sanity  should  be  evident. 

But  this  chapter  wasn't  intended  to  be  mere 
negations,  except  in  so  far  as  negations  are  al- 
ways necessary  to  sweep  away  the  obstacles  that 
hinder  affirmation,  the  real  power.  Says  Fonte- 
nelle,  "It  is  not  science  to  fill  one's  head  with  all 
the  extravagances  of  the  Phoenicians  and  the 
Greeks,  but  it  is  science  to  know  what  led  the 
Phoenicians  and  the  Greeks  into  these  extrava- 
gances. All  men  are  so  much  alike  that  there  is 
no  race  whose  follies  should  not  make  us  tremble." 

"We  live  spiritually,"  says  Prof.  Royce,  "by  out- 
lining our  forms  and  thus  enriching  our  sense  of 
their  deeper  meaning."  What  once  was  thot  to 
be  final  truth,  becomes  more  pregnant  if  we  regard 


138          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

it  as  showing  how  man  progresses  continually 
from  relatively  false  to  relatively  more  exact. 

Science  has  been  defined  as  "organized  knowl- 
edge ;"  but,  more  than  that,  it's  a  method.  When 
your  black  priest  from  Africa  tells  a  miraculous 
tale  of  Mohammed,  your  white  priest  may  go 
him  a  better  one  of  Christ ;  but  your  brown  priest 
can  tell  one  about  Krishna's  miracles  which 
makes  both  the  others  look  as  commonplace  as 
pages  from  a  dictionary.  Each  one  can  tell  a  won- 
derful story  to  prove  his  own  point,  but  the  world 
makes  no  advance  thru  such  methods. 

At  the  beginning  of  all  spiritual  life,  must  come 
the  determination  to  be  sincere.  If  a  creed  won't 
stand  skepticism,  won't  bear  critical  examina- 
tion, regards  any  matters  as  "mysteries"  too  holy 
to  be  investigated,  and  tells  us  we  "must  have 
faith." — we're  false  to  the  highest  in  us  if  we 
accept  that  creed,  however  much  comfort  it  seems 
to  afford  us.  True,  that  in  accepting  the  word  of 
an  eminent  scientist  upon  some  discovery  he  has 
made,  we  may  be  as  gullible  as  any  other  doc- 
trinaire. E;  g.,  The  "law  of  universal  gravita- 
tion" sometimes  is  taught  in  school  as  a  truth 
which  it  would  be  naughty,  or  impious,  not  to  be- 
lieve. But  that's  not  true  science  at  all, — that's 
only  weak  human  nature  asserting  itself  again  in 
a  new  mask.  Genuine  science  consists  in  per- 
forming personally  the  experiments  which  sub- 
stantiate a  hypothesis.  And  where  it  is  impos- 
sible to  do  this,  the  next  best  thing  is,  to  demand 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          139 

that  the  scientific  men  in  whom  one  puts  trust  as 
one's  competent  envoys,  shall  be  men  of  skeptical 
and  accurate  habits,  whose  reputation  for  im- 
partial veracity  has  stood  the  test  of  an  army  of 
co-investigators  constantly  ready  to  expose  them, 
should  they  claim  a  discovery  which  others,  work- 
ing independently  with  proper  apparatus,  can't 
certify. 

"It  is  a  sign  of  mediocrity  to  have  settled 
opinions  on  unsettled  subjects,"38  and  in  the  realm 
of  ideas  and  ideals,  as  everywhere  else,  "eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty." 

What  ideals  of  character  must  become  that  of 
the  race?  Certainly  a  character  creative  of  Hap- 
piness first  of  all  for  we  are  so  made  that  we 
can't  think  of  anything  as  being  good,  that  doesn't 
somehow  make  someone  happier.  And  then  the 
idea  of  fairness.  In  fact,  the  idea  of  The  Great- 
est Happiness  For  the  Greatest  Number. 

Will  a  time  come  when  all  men  shall  hold  this 
ideal?  It  will.  For  thru  Force,  Custom,  Sugges- 
tion, and  Reason,  the  law  of  natural  selection 
stamps  out  all  that's  not  sincere  and  true. 

"Till  o'er  the  wreck  emerging  from  the  storm, 
Immortal  Nature  lifts  her  changeful  form; 
Mounts  from  her  funeral  pyre  on  wing  of  flame, 
And  soars  and  shines,  another  and  the  same."39 

Good  men  live  in  mutual  helpfulness;  evil  men 
in  destructiveness  and  misery.  The  most  like- 


S8C.  E.  Jemingham — Maxims   of  Marmaduke,   p.   6. 

"Erasmus    Darwin — Botanic    Garden.      Pt.    L.    Canto    IV,    L.   399. 


140          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

able40  fellows  are  surest  to  mate  and  leave  chil- 
dren to  inherit  their  good  qualities.  History  is 
the  story  of  how  societies  built  on  egoistic  lines 
always  are  conquered  by  societies  built  on  more 
altruistic  lines;  therefore  the  sense  of  self-inter- 
est of  societies  continually  suggests  an  atmos- 
phere more  favorable  to  altruism. 

Our  philosophy  is  too  negative!  we're  ruled  by 
immediate  emergencies  because  we  have  no  higher 
vision  to  dwell  on.  How  shall  we  attain  one? 
Only  by  forgetting  that  semi-fiction,  Selfhood. 

We  may  have  one  immortal  "soul,"  or  we  may 
have  a  dozen,  or  there  may  be  a  myriad  of  us 
living  together  in  this  body,  one  soul  to  every 
living  cell,  and  each  imagining  that  he  is  the  only 
inhabitant,  exalted  into  higher  consciousness  than 
it  could  be  if  alone,  because  of  the  "crowd  psy- 
chology" of  living  integrally  in  a  community  of 
so  many.  .  .  .  So,  too,  in  a  nest  of  bees,  EACH 
tiny  individual  may  pulsate  with  the  WHOLE 
feeling  of  being  what  Maeterlinck41  called  the 
"spirit  of  the  hive."  Ecstasy  the  Orientals  be- 
lieve to  be  the  union  of  the  soul  of  an  individual 
with  the  great  total  of  all  souls.  And  tho  there 
is  an  ecstacy  which  is  sensual  and  fleeting,  yet 
indeed  one  may  attain  an  excitement  of  enduring 
and  sustaining  value,  by  becoming,  thru  the 
power  of  wisely  directed  effort,  less  a  microcos- 
mic,  more  a  macrocosmic,  kind  of  self.42 

40I  wish  I  also  could  say,  the  most  ABLE. 
41M.   Maeterlinck,   The  Life  of  the  Bee. 

"For    all    creatures    to    reach   this    state   togethei-,    would   be   no    less 
than    in   a   sense  to   create    God. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          141 

But  let's  return  to  the  relation  of  sexuality  to 
certain  religious  phenomena. 

The  multiplication  of  new  cults  indicates,  to 
my  mind,  that  men  crave  some  intellectualization 
of  the  tendencies  toward  idealism  which  they  feel 
within  themselves,  as  well  as  crave  some  clearer 
guide  to  right  action  than  instinct  alone  affords. 
The  supplying  of  such  a  philosophy  explains  the 
partial  success  of  so  many  recent  "cults."  But 
these  cults  are  the  product  of  uneducated  think- 
ers, who,  though  intending  well,  yet  under-esti- 
mating the  enormous  necessity  of  academic  train- 
ing. No  one  would  dream  of  employing  such 
people  as  chemists,  locomotive  builders  or  sur- 
geons. "Evil  is  wrought  by  want  of  thought  as 
well  as  by  want  of  heart." 

Love  you  then  mother,  father,  sibling,  sweet- 
heart? What  profits  it  to  give  them  this  mo- 
mentary embrace  if  almost  within  your  grasp 
they  whiten  with  age  or,  caught  in  fever's  or 
disease's  clutch,  they  pass  from  sight?  They  re- 
turn, if  ever,  to  an  earth  as  full  of  woes  and  part- 
ings as  that  they  so  lately  left. 

Count  not  on  heavenly  meetings,  future  recog- 
nitions, supernatural  consolations.  Faith  in  such 
things  is  but  the  delusion  of  a  hope,  resting  on 
hearsay  evidence.  If  something  in  us  yet  sur- 
vives the- grave,  where  shall  that  something  dwell, 
unless  here  upon  this  same  old  earth?  What 
should  drive  us  hence?  Pray  not;  therefore,  to 
God,  the  deaf,  the  impossible  of  existence,  for 


142          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

your  loved  one.  Work  rather  with  your  own  two 
hands  to  beautify  this  world,  that  his  soul  may 
find  it  lovelier  to  abide  in;  and  create  therefore 
kindness  and  the  spirit  of  good  will  toward  every 
creature,  for  who  may  say  what  form  your  friend 
shall  next  inhabit? 

A  good  way  is  to  regard  our  "self"  as  the 
BUNDLE  OF  THE  SEVERAL  ASPIRATIONS, 
DESIRES  AND  SYMPATHIES  WHICH  ARE 
DEAR  TO  US.  We  like  this  view  of  the  ego43 
because  it  lets  us  look  upon  "selfishness"  in  the 
common  acceptance  of  the  term  and  our  ignor- 
ance, etc.,  as  the  ego's  primitive,  small,  undevel- 
oped or  shrunken  conditions;  and  upon  generos- 
ity and  wisdom  as  equally  the  ripened  fruit  of  its 
larger  growth;  that  puts  these  types  of  char- 
acter in  the  position  we  feel  they  ought  to 
occupy.  The  self -feeling  of  some  persons  scarce- 
ly passes  beyond  the  limits  of  their  corporeal 
bodies  and  of  the  raiment  that  tricks  them  out. 
Whereas  the  ambitions  of  some  (however  few 
doesn't  concern  this  argument)  others  include  the 
whole  world  in  their  ken;44  to  these  salt  of  the 
earth  let  their  high  opportunities  be  made  known, 
that  they  may  slough  off  the  blindness  which  hides 
them  from  their  best  selves,  and  seek  the  sunlight 


pe 
hat 


43Thus    Lotze   makes    such    a    great    point    of    the    extension    of    our 
srsonality   to   the  tip   of  the  cane   we  carry   in   hand,   the   top   of   the 


"James,   Wm.,   Psychology,   ch.    14,  pp.   550-604. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          143 

wherein  to  be  warmed  to  the  uttermost  unfolding 
and  to  a  life  of  vigorous  activity. 

We  wish  you  to  remember  this  way  of  consid- 
ering the  self,  because  it'll  be  the  basis  of  figures 
of  speech  which  we  shall  use  thruout  this  book. 
What  do  people  mean  by  the  word  "self?"  Do 
they  mean  their  own  bodies?  And  if  so,  why  not 
just  as  much  their  hair,  finger-nails,  etc.,  which 
are  a  part  of  their  bodies,  and  their  clothes  with 
which  they  adorn  themselves?  If  to  an  outside 
eye,  too  often  "the  clothes  make  the  man,"  so 
why  not  consider  them  PART  of  the  man?  Or, 
if  their  self  is  a  matter  of  innerconsciousness  and 
sensation,  must  it  not  be  made  to  include  the 
sensations  of  mothers,  small  brothers,  and  others 
whom  they  love?  Whose  injuries  they  feel  quite 
as  acutely  as  they  would  injuries  to  their  own 
proper  persons?  For,  if  they  are  going  to  draw 
distinctions  between  sensations  felt  immediately 
and  those  only  felt  in  that  other  manner  thru 
sympathy,  why  shouldn't  they  confine  themselves 
just  as  much  to  the  sensations  of  the  immediate 
moment  and  refuse  to  admit  as  of  themselves  any 
sensations  of  the  future?  It  will  be  evident 
after  a  little  thinking  that  the  self  is  not  any  fixed 
and  static  thing,  but  something  that  grows,  send- 
ing out  shoots  as  does  a  plant.  It  sends  out  some 
shoots,  like  Deceit,  Meanness,  Vice,  and  Unfit- 
ness,  which  (for  reasons  we  shall  give)  need  to 
be  pruned  off;  but  it  also  grows  another  and  for- 
tunately a  very  opposite  kind  of  shoots,  like  Un- 


144          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

derstanding,  Helpfulness,  Virtue,  and  Efficiency. 
It's  a  question  how  far  we  should  either  prune 
off,  or  cultivate,  other  people's  shoots  for  them, 
by  using  force,  or  blindly  forming  their  habits, 
or  even  implanting  subtle  suggestions;  but  one 
thing  we  certainly  MAY  do — we  may  argue,  we 
may  tell  them  our  own  experiences,  we  may  fore- 
stall their  being  deceived.  If  we  thoroughly  at- 
tend to  that,  and  are  everlastingly  patient,  we 
find  that  boys,  at  least,  will  prune,  of  their  own 
accord,  the  bad  shoots  that  weigh  them  down; 
and  will  direct  their  forces  into  the  shoots  better 
poised  and  upright.  If  boys  why  not  adults? 

Those  who  have  attained  to  the  above  concep- 
tion of  the  self,  henceforth  in  a  measure  are  fore- 
armed against  depression  from  the  loss  of  hope 
that  our  memories  and  other  personal  character- 
istics survive  death.  For  if  we  live  and  think 
aright,  our  interests  continue  to  prosper  after  the 
destruction  of  this  bodily  instrument.  The  high- 
est interests  indeed,  Truth,  of  Goodness,  are  like 
the  phoenix ;  tho  they  be  killed,  still  in  time  they 
are  sure  to  be  resurrected.  Identify  your  soul 
with  these  eternal  interests,  and  tho  it  be  be- 
trayed and  seemingly  lost,  there  shall  come  in 
time  its  savior. 

Yet  tho  it  is  so  possible  to  resuscitate  a  soul — 
even  to  the  point  of  giving  it  more  vitality  than 
ever  it  possessed  in  the  original  body,  (a  thing 
Mencius'  writings  did  for  Confucius)  yet  for 
souls  there  nevertheless  is  death.  There  are  death 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          145 

by  neglect,  and  the  more  fearful  death  by  poison- 
ing. In  the  old  Egyptian  myth,  when  Isis  made 
an  adder  to  sting  Osiris,  she  molded  it  out  of  his 
own  spittle  mixed  with  clay,  and  so  gained  power 
over  him,  according  to  the  rule  of  magic  that  that 
which  proceeds  from  us  has  power  to  bind  us. 
Under  a  superstitious  awe  for  the  spoken  word 
and  for  all  cast-off  things  as  magically  potent 
over  a  person,  the  ancients  may  well  have  sym- 
bolized the  truth,  that  out  of  a  man's  own  mouth 
is  he  confuted.  When  a  soul  is  made  to  betray 
and  confute  itself,  or  frightened  into  undoing  and 
reversing  the  labor  of  its  life,  it  has  been  pois- 
oned, and  has  shrunk  back  beyond  the  nothing- 
ness out  of  which  it  was  born.  In  this  crooked 
world,  in  which  every  principle  must  bend  a  trifle 
if  it  is  to  survive  long  enough  to  accomplish  any 
work  at  all  in  straightening  the  crookedness 
around  it,  the  most  difficult  of  all  things  is  to 
tell  when  pliancy  has  gone  far  enough,  when  fur- 
ther bending  threatens  loss,  not  gain. 

In  this  sense  Institutions  as  well  as  individuals, 
have  their  souls;  and  all  is  true  of  them  that  we 
have  spoken  regarding  the  souls  of  individuals. 
When  the  spirit  of  an  institution  is  dead,  it  were 
better  for  itself  and  for  the  world  that  its  corpse 
died  too,  instead  of  wriggling  on  like  the  behead- 
ed body  of  a  snake. 

"Be  always  displeased  at  what  thou  art,  if 
thou  desire  to  attain  to  what  thou  art  not;  for 


146          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

where  thou  hast  pleased  thyself,  there  thou  abid- 
est." 

But  let's  turn  to  the  other  objection  that's 
voiced  against  determinism;  namely,  that  it 
makes  it  unreasonable  to  encourage  good  or  blame 
evil. 

Can  you  justify  folk  who  reward  or  punish  a 
child  just  to  show  good  humor  or  vent  their 
spleen?  Rather,  aren't  they  hoping  that  their 
treatment  will  be  the  cause  to  produce  in  him  a 
certain  effect,  implicitly  recognizing  in  at  least 
a  degree  that  his  character  can  be  determined  by 
circumstances?  And  don't  we  modify  our  treat- 
ment of  him  in  recognition  of  other  influences, 
such  as  sickness,  fatigue,  or  bad  leadership,  that 
have  affected  the  case?  Says  a  modern  criminol- 
ogist: 

"We  know  that  the  ego  cannot  create  itself  and 
that  the  character  has  already  been  formed  by  a 
series  of  anterior  facts  .  .  .  were  this  not  so,  we 
should  be  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  in  each 
man  there  takes  place  at  each  instant  a  veritable 
miracle,  that  is  to  say  ...  an  initial  movement 
in  nowise  the  effect  of  pre-existing  or  superven- 
ing conditions. 

"From  this  standpoint,  the  problem  of  punish- 
ment completely  defies  solution."45 

In  considering  this  or  any  of  the  following 
problems  under  the  head  of  ethical  reconstruc- 
tion, we  shall  dwell  upon  the  opposition  between 


4=Baron   Garofolo,   Criminology,  chap.  2,  par.   2. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          147 

the  old  and  the  new  points  of  view,  namely  the 
opposition  of  a  morality  which  was  formulated 
by  the  leading  elements,  the  arisotic  elements  in 
a  society  which  was  only  just  merging  out  of 
feudalism,  as  against  the  morality  of  a  coming 
regime  which  we  hope  may  be  formulated  by  those 
elements  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scale  and 
not  at  the  top  of  it.  We  are  demanding  today  a 
revolution  in  economic  conditions  at  least  as  mo- 
mentous as  the  last  century's  revolutions  in  poli- 
tical institutions.  The  older  ethics,  therefore, 
upheld  in  the  face  of  logic  the  doctrine  of  free- 
dom of  the  will,  in  order  that  it  might  justify  a 
religious  conception  of  personal  righteousness  or 
sinfulness.  The  new  ethics  instead  will  incline 
toward  determinism  because  determinism  alone 
is  consistent  with  the  idea  that  by  improving  in- 
stitutions and  the  environment  under  which  men 
live,  we  can  alter  the  moral  judgments  and  con- 
duct of  men  themselves.  That  is  to  say  that  every 
improvement  in  our  system  of  handling  prisoners, 
every  improvement  in  appealing  to  the  pride  of 
people  whom  we  formerly  attempted  to  help  only 
by  "charity,"  every  new  application  of  sugges- 
tion in  giving  ideals  to  the  young  children,  in 
short,  every  mode  that  we  take  of  trying  to  make 
people  morally  better,  is  based  upon  the  concep- 
tion that  their  goodness  or  badness  is  to  a  very 
large  extent  determined  by  the  experiences  that 
we  from  the  outside  are  able  to  hand  on  to  them. 
Therefore,  as  said,  mankind  passes  from  the  old 


148          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

conception  of  free  will  to  an  ethics  based  upon 
determinism. 

This  needn't,  however,  imply  that  passivism, 
which  is  so  often  associated  with  the  idea  of  fatal- 
ism. It  is  true  that  fatalism  typifies  most  of  the 
philosophies  of  the  Orient,  where,  because  of  con- 
ditions of  climate,  and  most  of  all,  because  of  the 
intense  crowding  of  populations,  which  makes 
for  a  low  standard  of  living,  men's  minds  become 
at  once  mystic  and  pessimistic  and  they  lack 
energy  to  accomplish  active  work.  It  is  equally 
true  that  the  thinking  of  most  energetic  charac- 
ters, as,  for  example,  Napoleon  (who  constantly 
referred  to  "My  Star,'')  express  this  determin- 
istic or  fatalistic  attitude.  For  the  conception 
of  being  driven  by  inner  necessity  does  not  any 
more  lead  to  saying  "What  is  the  use  of  my  try- 
ing to  be  better  or- to  accomplish  things,"  than 
it  leads  to  saying  "How  can  I  help  improving  or 
doing  right !" 

What  indeed  is  it  but  a  too  non-deterministic 
attitude  carried  to  the  point  of  intellectual  dis- 
honesty, that  permits  many  people  of  feeble  char- 
acter to  live  continually  in  the  hope  of  luck,  soft 
snaps,  and  short-cuts  to  success,  gambling  in  lot- 
teries, and  scanning  magazines  for  articles  sent 
"free?"  What  believer  in  free-will  is  inconsist- 
ent when  he  "burns  the  candle  at  both  ends"  with 
late  hours,  orgies,  bad  ventilation,  drugs  (tobacco 
at  least)  combined  with  hectic  days?  Under  de- 
terminism, however,  every  idealist  is  bidden  first 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          149 

of  all  to  study  the  material  and  psychical  require- 
ments of  his  own  organism,  and  to  relieve  it  of 
irritations  and  disharmonies  which  else  may 
bring  his  grander  reformatory  plans  to  ruin. 

Finally,  to  all  them  who  have  been  disturbed 
by  the  fatality  taught  in  these  pages,  it  is  to  be 
pointed  out  that  their  very  concern  over  their 
chances  of  rising  out  of  present  selfishness  into 
a  better  future  character,  is  circumstantial  evi- 
dence that  selfishness  isn't  the  fundamental  law 
of  their  natures,  else  selfishness  would  have  satis- 
fied them.  A  nobler  type  of  living  will  prove  more 
congenial  to  them,  undoubtedly,  when  once  they've 
sloughed  off  old  habits  of  thought  and  demeanor. 
To  everyone,  in  short,  in  whom  this  chapter  finds 
a  responsive  echo,  or  who  finds  himself  ponder- 
ing its  viewpoint  after  he  has  laid  this  book 
aside,  we  may  say  confidently  "You're  one  of 
those,  for  whom  it  was  written.  Many  were  not  so 
born  for  it,  but  you  were.  You,  even  without  con- 
scious effort,  are  already  upon  the  first  step  of  a 
new  sphere  of  development;  you're  beyond  pure 
selfishness  because  that  never  was  natural  to  you." 
Whoever  has  advanced  thus  far,  will  hardly  re- 
verse his  evolution,  to  wallow  again  in  the 
primaeval  slime." 

"For  he  on  honey  dew  hath  fed, 
And  drunk  the  milk  of  Paradise."46 


"'•Coleridge— Kubla    Khan. 


150          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

An  Atheistic  Ethics  founded  upon  the  idea  of 
Helpfulness  to  others  must  take  the  place  of  sup- 
erstitious ethics  built  upon  tradition.  Although 
their  doctrines  have  been  preached  to  humanity 
for  from  1,500  to  2,500  years  you  still  hear  apolo- 
gies made  for  the  meager  fruit  of  Mohammedan, 
Christian,  and  Buddhistic  Ethics,  on  the  score 
that  these  teachings  "have  never  yet  been  tried." 
If  after  so  many  centuries  these  systems  haven't 
recommended  themselves  sufficiently  to  the  com- 
mon sense  of  mankind  to  receive  even  a  satisfac- 
tory trial,  surely  it  is  time  that  a  more  promising 
code  was  devised.  Superstition  in  its  grossest 
form  is  an  admixture  of  greedy  supplication  of 
the  gods  for  material  goods,  together  with  a 
scarcely  disguised  sex-worship,  a  cringing  sup- 
plication for  defense  against  danger,  and  an  in- 
vocation of  divine  wrath  against  the  enemy.  To- 
day the  religion  of  people  of  ordinary  discrimina- 
tion still  contains  elements  derived  from  these 
same  emotions — hunger,  love,  fear  and  hate,  but 
in  a  form  to  soothe  rather  than  to  excite  them. 
The  analytic  type  of  person  is  apt  to  pierce  with 
his  intellect  the  whole  fallacy  of  supposing  that 
our  personality  can  survive  the  disintegration  of 
our  brain,  and  tho  he  may  believe  that  still  the 
element  or  elements  of  our  consciousness  may 
recombine  in  new  combinations  to  live  again  on 
this  same  earth,  yet  there  is  no  reward  or  prog- 
ress beyond  the  grave  save  as  we  may  make  the 
whole  world  a  better  place  to  be  born  again  into. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          151 

With  this  realization,  man  liberates  his  spirit 
from  its  thralldom  to  ancestral  prejudices.  The 
worker  for  the  good  of  humanity  sees  in  super- 
naturalism  a  barrier  to  progressive  movements 
and  a  stronghold  of  the  privileged  classes;  but 
in  opening  fire  upon  this  citadel,  he  makes  atheism 
one  in  a  program  of  several  proposals  for  ethical 
reform. 


CHAPTER  II 

Beatitude — happiness,  in  intensest  degree  of 
the  greatest  number  of  living  beings  for  the  long- 
est time — as  the  test  of  the  worth  of  anything 
must  be  another  proposition  of  the  new  ethics. 
From  this  one  it  follows  that  the  first  step  in  vir- 
tue is  to  become  either  light-hearted  or  diligent  or 
magnanimous.  The  second  step  is  to  combine  two 
of  these  qualities.  The  final  step  is  to  combine  all 
three.  Generally  it  may  be  said  that  from  the 
point  of  view  of  hedonism  the  lowest  type  of  man 
is  that  degenerate  type  produced  by  civilization, 
the  worrier.  We  see  him  as  the  sensualist  trying 
consciously  to  stimulate  his  jaded  senses ;  or  as  the 
sentimental  woman  hurrying  from  cult  to  cult  on 
account  of  what  someone  has  named  "that  stream 
of  emotions  she  calls  her  soul."  We  must  entice 
these  people  with  the  value  of  simple  enjoyment 
of  the  passing  moment.  Next  there  are  the  but- 
terfly types,  thoroughly  natural  but  forever  in- 
volving themselves — not  to  mention  their  friends 
— in  difficulties  by  their  indiscretions.  We  must 
appeal  to  them  in  the  hour  of  their  trial  to  be  no 
longer  deceived  by  these  illusions,  but  to  drop  off 
what  hinders  future  happiness.  Third  are  those 
who  calmly  bend  all  efforts  toward  one  end,  but 
that  end  a  selfish  one — these  include  most  ambi- 
tious and  ascetic  types ;  we  must  show  them  how 
their  self -centered  interest  defeats  its  own  end. 
and  requires  the  cultivation  of  a  magnanimous 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          153 

purpose.    Finally  there  are  the  few  happy  people 
who  have  lost  themselves  in  serving  others. 

SECTION  I 

"Always  be  cheerful,  smile !  A  good  laugh  is 
the  best  medicine." 

Why  is  it,  when  the  evil  results  of  religion 
would  appear  to  be  so  evident,  men  still  adhere 
to  it?  Partly,  as  we've  shown,  because  certain 
parties  derive  a  profit  from  it  and  partly  because 
it  sublimates  our  love  for  it.  But  there's  another 
reason,  in  the  comfort  which  many  people  find 
in  it.  It's  hard  to  shake  off,  just  as  is  a  drug. 
"No  one"  condones  a  writer  in  the  Truth  Seeker."1 
who  have  had  any  intimate  experience  of  the  sor- 
rows of  life  can  fail  to  have  a  certain  sympathy 
with  people  whose  failing  courage  on  extraneous 
support.  .  .  We  pity,  rather  than  condemn,  the 
man  who  is  driven  by  insomnia  to  the  relief  af- 
forded by  opium.  But  one  consideration  emerges 
.  .  .  from  this  attempt  to  answer.  .  .  "Why  men 
believe?  by  descriptions  of  the  consoling  power 
of  Christianity.  True  though  these  descriptions 
may  be,  they  do  not  prove  the  truth  of  Christian- 
ity. 

The  thought  that  Christ  wiped  out  the  sins  of 
men  by  his  death  on  the  cross  may  be  soothing  to 
the  man  or  woman  struggling  against  temptation, 
but  the  soothing  influence  does  not  prove  that 
that  event  took  place.  A  dying  sufferer  may  be 

'Feb.   1,   1919. 


154          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

comforted  with  the  thought  of  heaven,  but  his 
pleasure  in  the  thought  does  not  demonstrate  the 
existence  of  a  future  life.  The  wish  is  father  to 
the  thought,  'but  the  thought  is  not  father  to  the 
proof. 

It  is,  surely,  only  a  most  pessimistic  view  of 
the  world  that  can  bring  belief  through  consola- 
tion into  such  prominence.  Christianity,  appar- 
ently, has  been  partly  responsible  for  the  pessim- 
ism. It  has  taught  the  essential  wickedness  of 
man;  it  has  preached  the  dependence  on  Provi- 
dential care;  and  it  has  turned  the  eyes  of  man 
from  his  own  vile  self  and  the  corrupt  things  of 
this  world  to  the  beauties  of  heaven.  In  this  way 
it  has  created  the  very  spirit  of  despair  in  human 
effort  the  power  of  the  human  will  to  overcome 
trouble  is  weakened  and  the  soul  becomes  a  prey 
to  its  own  weakness. 

Surely,  when  one  is  asked  to  choose  between 
a  "gospel"  which  represents  man  as  a  care-worn 
child  comforting  himself  with  the  alleged  prom- 
ises of  an  alleged  creator,  and  a  view  of  life  which 
gives  man  the  power  of  his  own  salvation  and 
makes  him  the  arbiter  of  his  own  destiny,  there 
can  be  no  hesitation. 

Regarding  "Theosophy,  Spiritualism,  and 
Christian  Science,"  .  .  .  "The  extraordinary  vogue 
which  they  have  among  women  and  among  men 
of  emotional  temperament  proves  that  the  ra- 
tional element  does  not  predominate.  Theosophy 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          155 

brings  ineffable  peace  to  the  soul;  Spiritualism 
comforts  us  with  .  .  .  communication,"  etc. 

Here  we're  reminded  of  R.  C.  Givler's2  obser- 
vation :  "I  vaguely  recall  reading  somewhere  that 
the  word  'Adam'  .  .  .  means  'a  dam'  or  'obstruc- 
tion,' whence  it  is  proven  that  mortal  mind  is 
very,  very  impervious  to  spiritual  influences."* 

"In  the  writings  of  certan  mental  healers  of 
today,  for  example,  alliteration  is  the  highest 
'logical'  category;  'experience  proves'  is  a  shibol- 
eth  from  another  quarter,  from  persons  blissfully 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  experience  is  both  a 
noun  and  a  verb,  usually  employed  in  an  equivocal 
sense.  'It  is  unthinkable,'  asserts  a  third  party, 
and  then  goes  on  to  state  just  how  carefully  the 
'unthinkable'  has  been  thot  out.  From  such  pit- 
falls of  expression  one  needs  to  be  emphatically 
warned  in  psychology." 

An  article  in  The  Truth  Seeker  concluded: 

The  situation  led  a  ...  cannon  to  remark,  after 
setting  out  to  convert  an  Agnostic:  "We  are  on 
different  sides  of  the  stream.  You  want  a  re- 
ligion founded  on  reason;  mine  is  founded  on 
faith." 

"Belief  through  consolation  may  commend  it- 
self to  the  emotional  and  imaginative,  but  such 
a  view  of  religion  adds  nothing  to  the  depository 
of  truth,  nor  does  it  create  an  increment  in  human 
knowledge  and  efficiency." 


2Idem.,   p.    11. 

*The  Conscious  Cross-Section,  p.  47. 


156          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

The  above  excellent  article  was  followed  by  this 
poem: 

THE  QUESTION. 

You  rob  us  of  all  that  is  sacred, 
Of  Bible,  of  God,  and  of  grace; 

But    when   you   thus   take    our   religion, 
What  else  do  you  give  in  its  place? 

—The  Old,  Old  Story. 

With  Bible  wide  open  the  preacher, 

As  its  pages  he  pounded  and  pawed, 
Denounced  the  devices  of  Satan 

And  exalted  the  glory  of  God. 
"All  fable  and  myth!"  cried  the  Skeptic; 

"Contradictions  absurd  on  their  face!" 
"I  know  it,"  assented  the  other, 

"But  what  will  you  give  in  their  place?" 

Deluded,  a  woman  prayed  hourly 

Some  fancied  offense  to  atone; 
Far  greater  her  sin,  she  imagined, 

Than  God  had  the  will  to  condone. 
"You  pine  'without  cause,"  ventured  Reason. 

There  was  end  of  the  devotee's  grace; 
"Away!  you  would  take  my  loved  sorrow, 

And  leave  not  a  pang  in  its  place." 

A  mendicant  sat  in  the  highway 

Where   rags  half  his   person  disclosed; 
There  were  Lazarus  sores  on  his  body, 

Which  in  charity's  name  he  exposed, 
"I  would  clothe  you  in  health,"  proffered  Science; 

But  the  mendicant  made  a  grimace. 
"My  wounds  are  my  wealth,"  said  the  fakir, 

"And  what  could  you  give  in  their  place?" 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          157 

A  traveler  once  in  the  Southland 

Discovered  a  people  in  chains; 
When  he  read  them  the  story  of  Freedom, 

They  gave  him  sour  looks  for  his  pains. 
Said  they:  "We  are  told  by  our  masters 

That  chains  are  God's  gift  to  our  race; 
Before  you  have  riven  them  from  us 

Say  what  you  will  give  in  their  place."3 

Undoubtedly,  however,  we  must  recognize  from 
the  psychological  standpoint  that  some  others, 
more  useful,  and  more  satisfying  channel  must 
be  found  for  that  portion  of  the  ego  which  hither- 
to expressed  itself  thru  religion. 

Let's  begin  by  controverting  the  philosophy 
which  sets  up  pleasure  as  the  end  of  life.  An 
article  in  the  International  Encyclopedia  states 
that  "psychological  hedonism"  is  "contraverted  by 
well  known  facts.  So  far  is  man  from  always 
seeking  pleasure  that  in  most  of  his  actions  he 
has  no  thought  of  pleasure.  He  acts  from  auto- 
matic impulse,  from  instinct,  from  habit,  from 
desire  for  certain  objective  ends,  as  well  as  oc- 
casionally from  a  desire  for  pleasure." 

Jealousy  of  admitting  that  one's  fellow  crea- 
tures can  possess  more  than  a  limited  amount  of 
virtue — or  should  I  say,  the  craving  to  reduce 
psychology  to  a  few  handy  empirical  rules,? — 
finds  expression  in  old  Epicurus'  doctrine,  that 
all  human  conduct  is  derivable  from  the  selfish 
craving  to  be  happy. 


*G«o.  E.  Macdonald. 


158          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

This  view  has  been  begotten  (in  the  face  of 
evident  facts)  from  one  of  man's  principal  vices, 
his  lust  for  metaphysics.  The  slander,  that  "crea- 
tures are  moved  only  by  self-interest,"  is  born  in 
our  desire  to  reduce  all  the  complexities  of  life 
down  to  a  few  handy  forumlae.  Color  has  been 
given  to  it  by  old-time  notions  of  the  Soul,  which 
was  presumed  to  be  the  seat  of  "The  Reason,"  and 
"The  Will,"  as  well  as  of  "Consciousness;"  and 
which  the  church  has  tried  to  bribe  into  being 
good  by  dangling  as  bait  the  hope  of  an  after- 
death  reward — a  tacit  admission  of,  and  more- 
over an  emphasis  upon,  self-interest. 

It  was  left  for  writers  of  the  last  two  or  three 
decades  to  prove  conclusively  that  the  pleasure- 
seeking  selfishness  of  human  nature  isn't  a  hard 
and  fast  rule  without  exceptions,  in  quite  the 
sense  that  a  prematurely  supercilious  philoso- 
phy assumed  it  to  be.  Not  at  least  save  as  our 
actual  actions  may  symbolize  for  us  other  actions 
which  would  give  selfish  pleasure  to  us.  This 
reservation  we  make  and  wish  to  have  understood 
thru  all  the  following  argument,  which  indeed  it 
largely  negatives. 

Professor  Wm.  James  has  argued  this  point  so 
thoroughly  and  well  that  for  proof  we  refer  the 
reader  to  volume  two  of  his  Principles  of  Psychol- 
ogy, pages  550  to  559. 

"Present  pleasures  are  tremendous  reinforcers,  rand 
present  pains  tremendous  inhibitors  of  whatever  action 
leads  to  them,  so  the  thoughts  of  pleasures  and  pains 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          159 

take  rank  amongst  the  thoughts  which  have  most  impul- 
sive and  inhibitive  power.  ...  It  is  almost  impossible  for 
a  man  to  cut  or  mutilate  himself  slowly  or  deliberately — 
his  hand  invincibly  refusing  to  bring  on  the  pain.  Many 
pleasures  .  .  .  when  once  we  have  begun  to  taste  them 
make  it  all  but  obligatory  to  keep  up  the  activity  to  which 
they  are  due.  So  widespread  and  searching  is  this  influ- 
ence of  pleasures  and  pains  upon  our  movements  that  a 
premature  philosophy  has  decided  that  these  are  our  only 
spurs  to  action,  and  that  therever  they  seem  to  be  absent 
it  is  only  because  they  are  so  far  on  among  the  'remoter' 
images  that  prompt  to  action  that  are  overlooked." 

"This*  is  a  great  mistake,  however.  Important  as  is 
the  influence  of  pleasures  and  pains  upon  our  movements, 
they  are  far  from  being  our  only  stimuli.  With  the  mani- 
festations of  instinct  and  emotional  expression,  for  ex- 
ample, they  have  absolutely  nothing  to  do.  Who  smiles 
for  the  pleasure  of  the  smiling,  or  frowns  for  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  frown?  Who  blushes  to  escape  the  discom- 
fort of  not  blushing?  Or  who  in  anger,  grief,  or  fear 
is  actuated  to  the  movements  which  he  makes  by  the 
pleasures  which  they  yield?  In  all  these  cases  the  move- 
ments are  discharged  fatally  by  the  vis  a  tergo  which 
the  stimulus  exerts  upon  a  nervous  system,  framed  to 
respond  in  just  that  way.  The  objects  of  our  rage,  love,  or 
terror,  the  occasions  of  our  tears  and  smiles,  whether  they 
be  present  to  our  sense,  or  whether  they  be  merely  rep- 
resented in  idea,  have  this  peculiar  sort  of  impulsive 
power.  The  impulsive  quality  of  mental  states  is  an  at- 
tribute behind  which  we  cannot  go.  Feelings  of  pleasure 
and  pain  have  it,  but  neither  have  it  exclusively  or  pecu- 
liarly. It  is  of  the  essence  of  all  consciousness  (or  of 
the  neural  process  which  underlies  it)  to  instigate  move- 
ment of  some  sort.  That  with  one  creature  and  object 
it  should  be  of  one  sort,  with  others  of  another  sort,  is  a 
problem  for  evolutionary  history  to  explain.  However, 


4James :    Psychology,   vol.   II,   pp.   550-559. 


160          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

the  actual  impulsions  may  have  arisen,  they  must  now 
be  described  as  they  exist;  and  those  persons  obey  a 
curiously  narrow  teleological  superstition  who  think  them- 
selves bound  to  interpret  them  in  every  instance  as  effects 
of  the  secret  solicitancy  of  pleasure  and  repugnacy  of 
pain.5 

"...  These  motives  are  supplied  by  innumberable  ob- 
jects, which  innervate  our  voluntary  muscles  by  a  process 
as  automatic  as  that  by  which  they  light  a  fever  in  our 
breasts.  If  the  thought  of  pleasure  can  impel  to  action, 
surely  other  thoughts  may.  Experience  only  can  decide 
which  thoughts  do.  The  chapters  on  Instinct  and  Emotion 
have  shown  us  that  their  name  is  legion;  and  with  this 
verdict  we  ought  to  remain  contended,  and  not  seek  an 
illusory  simplification  at  the  cost  of  half  the  facts. 

"If  in  these  our  first  acts  pleasures  and  pains  bear  no 
part,  as  little  do  they  bear  in  our  last  acts,  or  those  ar- 
tificially acquired  performances  which  have  become  ha- 
bitual. All  the  daily  routine  of  life,  our  dressing  and  un- 
dressing, the  coming  and  going  from  our  work  or  carry- 
ing through  of  its  various  operations,  is  utterly  without 


(James'  note) — 5"The  silliness  of  the  old-fashioned  pleasure-philoso- 
phy saute  aux  yeux.  Take  for  example  Prof.  Bain's  explanation  of 
sociability  and  Parental  love  by  the  pleasures  of  touch :  "Touch  is 
the  fundamental  and  generic  sense.  .  .  The  combined  power  of  soft 
contact  and  warmth  amounts  to  a  considerable  pitch  of  massive  pleas- 
ure. .  .  .  The  sort  of  thrill  from  taking  a  baby  in  arms  is  something 
beyond  mere  warm  touch  ;  and  it  may  rise  to  the  ecstatic  height.  .  .  . 
In  mere  tender  emotion  not  sexual,  there  is  nothing  but  the  sense  of 
touch  to  stratifying.  Touch  is  both  the  alpha  and  omega  of  affec- 
tion. .  .  .  Why  should  a  more  lively  feeling  grow  up  towards  a  fellow- 
being  than  toward  a  perennial  fountain?  (This  'should'  is  simply  de- 
licious from  the  more  modern  evolutionary  point  of  view).  To  ac- 
count for  this,  I  can  suggest  nothing  but  the  primary  and  independ- 
ent pleasure  of  the  animal  embrace."  (Mind,  this  is  said  not  of  the 
sexual  interest,  but  of  'Sociability  at  Large.')  .  .  .  Prof.  Bain  does 
not  explain  why  a  satin  cushion  kept  at  about  98°  F.  would  not  on 
the  whole  give  us  the  pleasure  in  question  more  cheaply  than  our 
friends  and  babies  do.  It  is  true  that  the  cushion  might  lack  the 
'occult  magnetic  influences."  Most  of  us  would  say  that  neither  a 
baby's  nor  a  friend's  skin  would  possess  them,  were  not  a  tenderness 
already  there.  The  youth  who  feels  ecstasy  shoot  through  him  when 
by  accident  the  silken  palm,  or  even  the  'vesture's  hem  of  his  idol 
touches  him,  would  hardly  feel  it.  were  he  not  hard  hit  by  Cupid  in 
advance.  The  love  creates  the  ecstasy,  not  the  ecstasy  the  love. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          161 

mental  reference  to  pleasure  and  pain,  except  under  rarely 
realized  conditions. 

"...  As  I  do  not  breathe  for  the  pleasure  of  the 
breathing,  but  simply  find  that  I  am  breathing,  so  I  do 
not  write  for  the  pleasure  of  the  writing,  but  simply  be- 
cause I  have  once  begun,  and  being  in  a  state  of  intel- 
lectual excitement  which  keeps  venting  itself  in  that  way, 
find  that  I  am  writing  still.  Who  will  pretend  that  when 
he  idly  fingers  his  knife-handle  at  the  table,  it  is  for  the 
sake  of  any  pleasure  which  it  gives  him,  or  pain  which  he 
thereby  avoids  ?  We  all  do  these  things  because  at  the 
moment  we  cannot  help  it;  our  nervous  systems  are  so 
shaped  that  they  overflow  in  just  that  way;  and  for  many 
of  our  idle  or  purely  'nervous'  and  fidgety  performances 
we  can  assign  absolutely  no  reason  at  all. 

"Or  what  shall  be  said  of  a  shy  and  unsociable  man 
who  receives  point-blank  an  invitation  to  a  small  party? 
The  thing  is  to  him  an  abomination;  but  your  presence 
exerts  a  compulsion  on  him,  he  can  think  of  no  excuse,  and 
so  says  yes,  cursing  himself  the  while  for  what  he  does. 
He  is  unusually  sui  compos  who  does  not  every  week  of 
his  life  fall  into  some  such  blundering  act  as  this.  Such 
instances  of  voluntas  invita  show  not  only  that  our  acts 
cannot  all  be  conceived  as  effects  of  represented  pleasure, 
but  that  they  cannot  even  be  classed  as  cases  of  repre- 
sented good.  The  class  'goods'  contains  many  more  gen- 
erally influential  motives  to  action  than  the  class  'pleas- 
ants.'  Pleasures  6ften  attract  us  only  because  we  deem 
them  goods.  Mr.  Spencer,  e.  g.,  urges  us  to  court  pleas- 
ures for  their  influence  upon  health,  which  comes  to  us  as 
a  good.  But  almost  as  little  as  under  the  form  of  pleas- 
ures do  our  acts  invariably  appear  to  us  under  the  form 
of  goods.  All  diseased  impulses  and  pathological  fixed 
ideas  are  instances  to  the  contrary.  It  is  the  very  bad- 
ness of  the  act  that  gives  it  then  its  vertiginous  fascina- 
tion. Remove  the  prohibition,  and  the  attraction  stops. 
In  my  university  days  a  student  threw  himself  from  an 


162          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

upper  entry  window  of  one  of  the  college  buildings  and 
was  nearly  killed.  Another  student,  a  friend  of  my  own, 
had  to  pass  the  window  daily  in  coming  and  going  from 
his  room,  and  experienced  a  dreadful  temptation  to  imi- 
tate the  deed.  .  .  His  director  said,  'all  right!  if  you  must, 
you  must.  Go  ahead  and  do  it,'  thereby  instantly  quench- 
ing his  desire.  .  .  .  But  we  need  not  go  to  minds  diseased 
for  examples  of  the  occasional  tempting-power  of  simple 
badness  and  unpleasantness  as  such.  Every  one  who  has 
a  wound  or  hurt  anywhere,  a  sore  tooth,  e.  g.,  will  ever 
and  anon  press  it  just  to  bring  out  the  pain.  If  we  are 
near  a  new  sort  of  stink,  we  must  sniff  it  again  just  to 
verify  once  more  how  bad  it  is.  This  very  day  I  have 
been  repeating  over  and  over  to  myself  a  verbal  jingle 
whose  mawkish  silliness  was  the  secret  of  its  haunting 
power.  I  loathed  yet  could  not  banish  it. 

"Believers  in  the  pleasure-and-pain  theory  must  thus, 
if  they  are  candid,  make  large  exceptions  in  the  applica- 
tion of  their  creed.  .  .  . 

"Accordingly,  where  Professor  Bain  finds  an  exception 
to  this  rule,  he  refuses  to  call  the  phenomenon  a  'gen- 
uinely voluntary  impulse.'  The  exceptions,  he  admits,  'are 
those  furnished  by  never-dying  spontaneity,  habits,  and 
fixed  ideas.'  Fixed  ideas  'traverse  the  proper  course  of 
volition.' 

"Disinterested  impulses  are  wholly  distinct  from  the 
attainment  of  pleasure  and  the  avoidance  of  pain.  .  .  .  The 
theory  of  disinterested  action,  in  the  only  form  that  I 
can  conceive  it,  supposes  that  the  action  of  the  will  and 
the  attainment  of  happiness  do  not  square  thruout." 

"Sympathy  has  this  in  common  with  the  Fixed  Idea, 
that  it  clashes  with  the  regular  outgoings  of  the  will  in 
favor  of  our  pleasure." 

"Prof.  Bain  thus  admits  all  the  essential  facts.  Pleas- 
ure and  pain  are  motives  of  only  part  of  our  activity.  But 
he  prefers  to  give  to  that  part  of  the  activity  exclusively 
which  these  feelings  prompt  the  name  of  'regular  out- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          163 

goings'  and  'genuine  impulses'  of  the  will,  and  to  treat 
all  the  rest  as  mere  paradoxes  and  anomalies,  of  which 
nothing  rational  can  be  said.  This  amounts  to  taking  one 
species  of  a  genus,  calling  it  along  by  the  generic  name, 
and  ordering  the  other  co-ordinate  species  to  find  what 
names  they  may.  At  bottom  this  is  only  verbal  play.  .  .  . 

"There  is,  it  is  true,  a  complication  in  the  relation  of 
pleasure  to  action,  which  partly  excuses  those  who  make 
it  the  exclusive  spur.  .  .  . 

"...  To  have  compassed  the  steps  towards  a  proposed 
sensual  indulgence  also  makes  us  glad,  and  this  gladness 
is  a  pleasure  additional  to  the  pleasure  originally  pro- 
posed. On  the  other  hand,  we  are  chagrined  and  dis- 
pleased when  any  activity,  however  instigated,  is  hind- 
ered whilst  in  process  of  actual  discharge.  We  are  'un- 
easy' till  the  discharge  starts  up  again.  And  this  is  just 
as  true  when  the  action  is  neutral,  or  has  nothing  but  pain 
in  view  as  its  result,  as  when  it  was  undertaken  for  pleas- 
ure's express  sake.  The  moth  is  probably  as  annoyed  if 
hindered  from  getting  into  the  lamp-flame  as  the  rogue  is 
if  interrupted  in  his  debauch;  and  we  are  chagrined  if 
prevented  from  doing  some  quite  unimportant  act  which 
would  have  given  us  no  noticeable  pleasure  if  done,  merely 
because  the  prevention  itself  is  disagreeable. 

"...  A  pleasant  act  and  an  act  pursuing  a  pleasure 
are  in  themselves,  however,  two  perfectly  distinct  con- 
ceptions, though  they  coalesce  in  one  concrete  phenom- 
enon whenever  a  pleasure  is  deliberately  pursued.  I  can- 
not help  thinking  that  it  is  the  confusion  of  pursued  pleas- 
ure with  mere  pleasure  of  achievement  which  makes  the 
pleasure-theory  of  action  so  plausible  to  the  ordinary 
mind.  We  feel  an  impulse,  no  matter  whence  derived;  we 
proceed  to  act;  if  hindered,  we  feel  displeasure;  and  if 
successful,  relief.  Action  in  the  line  of  the  present  im- 
pulse is  always  for  the  time  being  the  pleasant  course; 
and  the  ordinary  hedonist  expresses  this  fact  by  saying 
that  we  act  for  the  sake  of  the  pleasantness  involved.  But 


164          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

who  does  not  see  that  for  this  sort  of  pleasure  to  be 
possible,  the  impulse  must  be  there  already  as  an  inde- 
pendent fact?  The  pleasure  of  successful  performance 
is  the  result  of  the  impulse,  not  its  cause.  You  cannot 
have  your  pleasure  of  achievement  unless  you  have  man- 
aged to  get  your  impulse  under  head-way  beforehand  by 
some  previous  means. 

"It  is  true  that  on  special  occasions  (so  complex  is  the 
human  mind)  the  pleasure  of  achievement  may  itself  be- 
come a  pursued  pleasure;  and  these  cases  form  another 
point  on  which  the  pleasure-theory  is  apt  to  rally.  Take 
a  foot-ball  game  or  a  fox-hunt.  Who  in  cold  blood  wants 
the  fox  for  its  own  sake,  or  cares  whether  the  ball  be  at 
this  goal  or  that?  We  know,  however,  by  experience,  that 
if  we  can  once  rouse  a  certain  impulsive  excitement  in  our- 
selves, whether  to  overtake  the  fox,  or  to  get  the  ball 
to  one  particular  goal,  the  successful  venting  of  it  over 
the  counteracting  checks  will  fill  us  with  exceeding  joy. 
We  therefore  get  ourselves  deliberately  and  artificially 
into  the  hot  impulsive  state.  It  takes  the  presence  of 
various  instinct-arousing  conditions  to  excite  it;  but  lit- 
tle by  little,  once  we  are  in  the  field,  it  reaches  its  par- 
oxysm; and  we  reap  the  reward  of  our  exertions  in  that 
pleasure  of  successful  achievement  which,  far  more  than 
the  dead  fox  or  the  goal-got  ball,  was  the  object  we  orig- 
inally pursued.  So  it  often  is  with  duties.  Lots  of  ac- 
tions are  done  with  heaviness  all  through,  and  not  till 
they  are  completed  does  pleasure  emerge,  in  the  joy 
of  being  done  with  them.  Like  Hamlet  we  say  of  each 
successive  task, 

'O  cursed  spite, 

That  ever  I  was  born  to  set  it  right!' 

and  then  we  often  add  to  the  original  impulse  that  set  us 
on,  this  additional  one,  that  'we  shall  feel  so  glad  when 
well  through  with  it,'  that  thought  also  having  its  impul- 
sive spur.  But  because  a  pleasure  of  achievement  can 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          165 

thus  become  a  pursued  pleasure  upon  occasion,  it  does  not 
follow  that  everywhere  and  always  that  pleasure  must 
be  what  is  pursued.  This,  however,  is  what  the  pleasure- 
philosophers  seem  to  suppose.  As  well  might  they  sup- 
pose, because  no  steamer  can  go  to  sea  without  incidental- 
ly consuming  coal,  and  because  some  steamers  may  oc- 
casionally go  to  sea  to  try  their  coal,  that  therefore  no 
steamer  can  go  to  sea  for  any  other  motive  than  that  of 
coal-consumption.6 

"As  we  need  not  act  for  the  sake  of  gaining  the  pleas- 
ure of  achievement,  so  neither  need  we  act  for  the  sake 
of  escaping  the  uneasiness  of  arrest.  This  uneasiness  is 
altogether  due  to  the  fact  that  the  act  is  already  tending 
to  occur  on  other  grounds.  And  these  original  grounds 
are  what  impel  to  its  continuance,  even  though  the  un- 
easiness of  the  arrest  may  upon  occasion  add  to  their 
impulsive  power." 

James  thus  ends  his  argument:  "To  conclude, 
I  am  far  from  denying  the  exceeding  prominence 
and  importance  of  the  part  which  pleasures  and 
pains,  both  felt  and  represented,  play  in  the  mo- 
tivation of  our  conduct.  But  I  must  insist  that 
it  is  no  exclusive  part,  and  that  co-ordinately  with 
these  mental  objects  innumerable  others  have  an 
exactly  similar  impulsive  and  inhibitive  power."7 


6"How  much  clearer  Hume's  head  was  than  that  of  his  disciples' ! 
It  has  been  proved  beyond  all  controversy  that  even  the  passions 
commonly  esteemed  selfish  carry  the  Mind  beyond  self  directly  to  the 
object ;  that  though  the  satisfaction  of  these  passions  gives  us  en- 
joyment, yet  the  prospect  of  this  enjoyment  is  not  the  cause  of  the 
passions  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  passion  is  antecedent  to  the  enjoy- 
ment, and  without  the  former  the  latter  could  never  possible  exist," 
etc. 

Tin  favor  of  the  view  in  the  text,  one  may  consult  H.  Sedgwick, 
Methods  of  Ethics,  book  I,  chap.  IV ;  T.  H.  Green,  Prolegomena  to 
Ethics,  bk.  iii.  chap.  1.  p.  179  Carpenter,  Mental  Physiol.,  chap.  VI; 
J.  Martineau,  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  part  11,  bk.  1,  chap.  11.  i, 
and  bk.  11,  branch  1.  chap.  1.  i  3.  Against  it  see  Leslie  Stephen, 
Science  of  Ethics,  chap.  11  ;  H.  Spencer,  Data  of  Ethics,  9-15 ;  D.  G. 
Thompson,  System  of  Psychology,  part  Ix,  and  Mind  vi,  62.  Also 
Bain,  Senses  and  Intellect,  38-44,  Emotions  and  Will,  436." 


166          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

McDougall8  adds: 

"None  of  the  doctrines  of  the  associationist 
psychology  was  more  profoundly  misleading  and 
led  to  greater  absurdities  than  the  attempt  to  ex- 
hibit pleasure  and  pain  as  the  source  of  all  activi- 
ties. What  could  be  more  absurd  than  Professor 
Bain's  doctrine  that  the  joy  of  a  mother  in  her 
child,  her  tender  care  and  self-sacrificing  efforts 
in  its  behalf,  are  due  to  the  pleasure  she  derives 
from  bodily  contact  with  it  in  the  maternal  em- 
brace? Or  what  could  be  more  strained  and  op- 
posed to  hundreds  of  familiar  facts  than  Herbert 
Spencer's  doctrine  that  the  emotion  of  fear  pro- 
voked by  any  object  consists  in  faint  revivals,  in 
some  strange  cluster,  of  ideas  of  all  the  pains  suf- 
fered in  the  past  upon  contact  with,  or  in  the 
presence  of,  that  object?  (cf.  Bain's  "Emotions 
and  the  Will,"  chap.  VI ;  and  H.  Spencer's  "Prin- 
ciples of  Psychology,"  vol.  I,  part  IV,  chap.  VIII, 
3rd  Ed.) 

Now  that  the  fallacy  of  the  extreme  form  of 
pleasure-philosophy,  has  been  exposed,  we're  in  a 
position  to  discuss  impartially  the  time  function 
of  displeasure  and  other  factors  in  conduct. 

One  of  the  new  psychological  concepts,  for 
which  the  Russian  school  (especially  Pavlov)  is 
chiefly  to  be  credited,  is  that  of  the  Conditioned 
Reflex.  Within  certain  ranges  of  stimulus,  ani- 
mals are  motived  to  outgoing  activities;  but  a 
different  range  of  the  same  stimuli  causes  with- 


8McDougall — Instincts,   p.    45. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          167 

drawing  reactions.  Thus,  small  enough  doses  of 
any  drug  are  in  their  effect  stimulant,  large  doses 
are  narcotic.  Hints  of  the  conditioned  reflex  idea 
occur  in  Thorndike's  "instinct  of  general  physical 
activity."  It's  more  emphasized  by  Pavlov,  Wood- 
worth,  Holt,  and  to  a  degree  Le  Dantec  and  others. 
Comparison  is  valuable  with  Bleuler's  theories  of 
Schizophrenic  negativism,  ambivalency,  and  am- 
bitendency. 

"Oltmanns  had  observed  that  Phycomyces  is 
positively  heliotropic  in  weak  light,  indifferent  in 
somewhat  stronger  light,  and  negatively  helio- 
tropic in  still  stronger  light."9 

We  can  detect  in  ourselves  the  reversal  of  the 
mechanism  of  response  when  the  tension  is  too 
great.  As  Dr.  Allport  suggested  in  a  seminar, 
with  too  intense  a  stimulus  we  feel  that  the  situa- 
tion is  "over  our  head"  and  become  indifferent  to 
it.  Also  a  chick  may  become  simply  "blind"  to 
caterpillars  as  food  to  be  pecked  at  after  the  chick 
has  experienced  their  wooliness. 

On  the  subject  of  habit,  Loeb  makes  this  con- 
tribution under  the  head  of  "memory  impulses 
and  Tropisms:" 

"When  a  muscle  is  stimulated  several  times  in 
succession,  the  effect  of  the  second  or  third  or 
later  stimulation  may  be  greater  than  that  of  the 
first.  A  consistently  anthropomorphic  author 
should  draw  the  inference  that  the  muscle  is 
gradually  learning  to  react  properly.  What  seems 


9Loeb — Tropisms,   p.    117. 


168          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

to  happen  is  that  the  hydrogen  ion  concentration 
is  raised  by  the  first  stimulations  to  a  point  where 
the  effect  of  the  stimulation  becomes  greater. 
When  the  stimulations  continue  and  the  hydrogen 
ion  concentration  becomes  still  greater,  the  re- 
sponse of  the  muscle  declines  and  finally  becomes 
zero;  the  hydrogen  ion  concentration  has  now 
become  too  high.  The  writer  observed  that  when 
winged  plant  lice  of  a  Cineraria  were  taken  di- 
rectly from  the  plant,  they  did  not  react  as 
promptly  as  after  they  had  gone  through  several 
heliotropic  experiments.  There  is  nothing  to  in- 
dicate that  this  is  a  case  of  "learning"  since  it 
may  also  be  the  result  of  a  change  in  the  hydrogen 
ion  concentration  or  of  some  other  reaction  prod- 
uct.10 

"Learning  is  only  possible  where  there  exists  a 
specific  organ  of  associative  memory,  the  physi- 
cal mechanism  of  which  is  still  unknown!"11 

And  again:  "Memory  images  may  have  a  di- 
rect orienting  influence.  The  chemotropic  phe- 
nomenon of  an  insect  laying  its  egg  on  a  sub- 
stance which  serves  as  food  (for  both  mother  and 
off -spring)  and  for  which  the  mother  is  positively 
chemotropic,  may  be  modified  by  an  act  of  asso- 
ciative memory,  e.  g.,  when  a  solitary  wasp  drags 
the  caterpillar  on  which  it  lays  its  eggs  to  a  pre- 
viously prepared  hole  in  the  ground.  The  essen- 
tial part  of  the  instinct,  the  laying  of  the  eggs  on 


10Loeb,    Jacques — Tropisms,    p.    164. 
"Idem.,   p.    165. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          169 

the  caterpillar,  does,  perhaps,  not  differ  very  much 
from  the  fly  laying  its  eggs  on  decaying  meat; 
and  the  solitary  wasp  may  be  strongly  positively 
chemotropic  for  the  caterpillar  on  which  it  lays 
the  eggs,  although  this  has  not  yet  been  investi- 
gated. But  the  phenomenon  is  complicated  by  a 
second  tropism,  which  we  will  call  the  "orienting 
effect  of  the  memory  image.  As  is  well  known, 
the  wasp  before  'going  for'  the  caterpillar,  digs 
a  hole  in  the  ground  to  which  it  afterwards  drags 
the  caterpillar,  often  from  a  distance.  The  find- 
ing of  this  previously  prepared  hole  by  the  re- 
turning wasp,  the  writer  would  designate  as  the 
tropistic  or  orienting  effect  of  the  memory  image 
of  the  location  of  this  hole ;  meaning  thereby  that 
the  memory  image  of  the  location  of  this  hole 
makes  the  animal  return  to  this  location." 

Thorndike,  in  his  experiments  with  cats,  who 
learned  to  get  out  of  boxes  by  manipulating 
latches,  noted  that  the  animals  tended  to  keep  all 
learned  elements  in  the  same  order.  In  this  he 
differs  from  Jennings. 

The  proper  way  to  commence  the  study  of  any 
psychic  function  is  by  considering  first  its  simpler 
forms  of  manifestation.  This  method  pursued  in 
the  case  of  voluntary  action  has  led  to  the  modern 
theory  of  Conditioned  Reflexes.  According  to 
this,  we're  endowed  at  birth,  not  so  especially 
with  an  assortment  of  specific  instincts,  as  with 
a  fund  of  energy  seeking  outlet  in  any  available 
channel  (Thorndike's  "Instinct  of  General  Physi- 


170          PHILOSOPHY  OP  HELPFULNESS 

cal  Activity").  This  energy  takes  the  form  of 
efferent  (out-going)  nervous  currents  to  one  or 
another  group  of  the  centers  which  control  muscu- 
lar actions.  Like  the  flow  of  compressed  air  into 
an  automatic  rock-drill,  so  the  nervous  energy  of 
a  new-born  chick  floods  into  centers  which  con- 
trol certain  muscles  of  his  neck  and  elsewhere, 
and  cause  up-and-down  pecking  movements.  In 
the  chick,  however,  there's  a  mechanism,  the 
nerve-endings  in  eyes,  the  taste  bulbs,  etc.,  which 
now  sends  back  to  the  controlling  centers  other, 
afferent  (in-coming)  currents,  which  may  as  it 
were  close  the  valve  and  shut  off  any  further  sup- 
ply of  air  from  our  rock-drill;  that  is,  stop  the 
pecking  movements  of  the  chick.  Actually,  thinks 
Hobhouse,  when  the  chick  say,  who  has  been  peck- 
ing at  gravel,  seeds,  worms,  etc.,  pecks  at  a  cater- 
pillar, this  "incongruous"  morsel  stimulates  the 
release  of  energy  into  withdrawing  movements, 
and  it  is  the  antagonism  of  the  old  and  new  move- 
ments which  is  the  "asynergie"  or  non-active  con- 
duct we  observe. 

Thorndike  here  makes  the  criticism  that  "con- 
gruous" and  "incongruous"  have  in  themselves 
no  power  of  making  connections  between  neurons. 
We  suspect  that  one  must  read  into  the  chick's 
situation  an  element  of  pleasure  when  he  pecks 
at  the  worms,  and  of  displeasure  when  he  gets  the 
caterpillar.  Pleasure,  as  Cannon*  and  others  have 
so  well  shown,  causes  a  secretion  of  certain  sub- 
stances by  special  glands  within  the  body,  where- 

*  Cannon — Bodily   Changes. 


171 

as  displeasure  causes  other  and  very  different 
secretions.  Isn't  it  possible  that  the  pleasure- 
secretions  cause  growth  towards  each  other  of 
the  nerve  ends,  or  otherwise  reduce  the  synoptic 
resistance  to  passage  of  nerve-currents,  whereas 
displeasure-secretions  cause  shrinkage  apart  of 
these  ends  or  otherwise  increase  the  resistance? 

Pavlov,  Woodworth,  and  others  yield  allegiance 
to  the  conditioned  reflex.  Prof.  Holt,  of  Harvard, 
holds  that  the  early  random  movements  may  be 
tropisms  to  various  stimuli,  like  that  of  the  flower 
which  turns  toward  the  sun.  We  shall  discuss 
tropisms  in  our  next  essay.  Le  Dantec,  a  noted 
French  psychologist,  points  out  that  eight  of  the 
"ten  commandments"  are  negative — an  indication 
that  the  prevailing  tendency  of  organisms  is  pos- 
itive or  out-going. 

An  important  fact  about  the  conditioned  re- 
flexes is  the  way  in  which  one  and  the  same  stimu- 
lus, according  as  it  is  now  moderate  or  now  in- 
tense may  excite  now  out-going  now  withdraw- 
ing actions,  now  attack  and  now  fear,  or  now  love 
and  now  disgust.  Perhaps  these  effects  operate 
thru  the  medium  of  the  secretions  they  generate 
within  the  body,  by  a  chemotropic  mechanism 
similar  to  that  of  our  response  to  drugs.  A  small 
amount  of  alcohol  or  caffeine,  or  whatever,  stimu- 
lates; but  a  sufficiently  large  dose  narcotizes. 

As  we  shall  show  with  more  detail  in  later  es- 
says, much  havoc  is  wrot  within  the  organism  by 
the  conflict  of  the  out-going  and  the  withdrawing 


172          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tendencies,  when  they  are  charged  with  strong 
impulsive  values,  at  least  when  the  issue  is  re- 
pressed instead  of  being  faced  frankly  and  on  the 
conscious  plane.  Hitchman  tells  how  while  the 
great  French  physician  "Charcot  was  engaged  in 
the  study  of  the  hysterical  paralyzes  which  follow 
dreams,  the  idea  came  to  him  to  reproduce  these 
artificially  and  to  this  end  he  made  use  of  hysteri- 
cal patients  whom  he  brought  into  the  sonnambul- 
istic  state  by  hypnosis.  He  succeeded  that  these 
paralyses  may  be  the  result  of  ideas  which  have 
gained  the  mastery  of  the  patient's  brain  in  mo- 
ments of  special  disposition."* 

It  was  finally  revealed  that  behind  sexual  erotic 
events  of  puberty  are  still  more  far-reaching  ex- 
periences of  infantile  life,  which  are  also  of  sexual 
content.  .  .  .  Since  these  infantile  experiences 
of  sexual  content  can  produce  a  psychic  effect  only 
by  the  aid  of  the  memory,  here  is  revealed  the 
insight  that  hysterical  symptoms  never  arise 
without  the  co-operation  of  the  memory.  Hysteri- 
cal patients  suffer  from  "reminiscences."  (Freud- 
Hitschman,  pp.  8-9.)  "A  definite  complex  is  in 
every  case  the  occasion  and  content  of  the  neu- 
rosis— it  is  the  ruling  power  in  the  diseased 
mind." 

However,  it's  explicitly  stated  now  that  "the 
neurotic  constitution  pre-exists" — or  antedates, 
the  specific  occasion  of  the  neurosis.  What  is  this 
neurotic  constitution?  C.  G.  Jung  implies  a  con- 


*Freud-Hitschnian— Theories  of  the  Neuroses,   pp.   5-6. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          173 

nection  between  it  and  an  abnormal  degree  of 
"extraversion"  or  of  "introversion."  To  explain 
these  terms  he  cites  the  two-type  division  of  men 
made  by  so  many  writers,  to  which  we  shall  come 
in  a  moment. 

We,  all  of  us,  possess  dual  nature,  at  once  for 
and  against  each  proposal, — the  tendency  techni- 
cally called  Bi-valence.  The  conception  of  Bi- 
valence  is  due,  we  believe,  chiefly  to  Freud  and 
Adler,  and  it  may  be  explained  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows. Whenever  we  have  an  impulse  to  perform 
an  act  of  a  certain  kind,  there  goes  with  it  always 
an  impulse  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction ;  and 
positive  conduct  is  possible  only  as  one  of  these 
tendencies  continuously  outbalances  the  other. 
This  doubleness  of  value  in  our  impulses  is  called 
ambi-tendency.  When,  however,  we  have  lived 
out  to  the  point  of  surfeit  our  tendencies  in  one 
direction,  it  will  often  happen  that  the  directly 
opposite  tendency  then  gains  the  ascendency.  This 
is  why  frequently  an  individual  whose  life  has 
been  most  unexceptionable  will  suddenly  seem  to 
change  his  character  completely  and  commit  acts 
of  a  scandalous  nature.  It  explains,  on  the  other 
hand,  why  persons  who  have  lived  out  only  the 
evil  side  of  their  characters,  as  e.  g.,  gamblers, 
prostitutes,  etc.,  astonish  those  who  do  not  well 
understand  human  nature  by  manifesting  a 
wholly  unexpected  self  sacrifice,  generosity,  etc. 
The  libido,  surfeited  with  evil,  craves  good. 

In  each  of  us  exists  this  complex  nature,  result- 


174 

ing  from  his  multitude  of  contradictory  instincts, 
and  it  is  true  that  every  impulse  that  prompts  us 
to  act  in  one  direction  is  accompanied  by  a  con- 
trary tendency  to  act  in  precisely  the  opposite 
manner.  We  cannot  think,  for  instance,  of  re- 
maining seated  without  the  idea  occurring  to  us  of 
getting  up.  Where  the  individual  completely  de- 
nies all  expression,  even  in  sublimated  or  symboli- 
cal form,  for  a  long  period  of  time,  to  any  element 
of  his  nature,  that  neglected  tendency  is  likely  at 
some  time  to  completely  overbalance  his  whole 
system  of  life  and  cause  him  to  run  amuck  to  the 
astonishment  no  less  of  himself  than  of  his 
friends.  The  saint  will  become  sinner;  and  the 
sinner  will  experience  emotional  religious  conver- 
sion, throw  himself  ecstatically  into  work  of  re- 
form or  whatever  it  may  be,  or  perhaps  will  show 
a  degree  of  kindness  and  self-sacrifice  that  the  or- 
dinary good  person  despairs  of.  This  explains 
many  of  the  inconsistencies  of  life. 

Moreover,  where  our  natural  desires  are 
slighted  in  a  way  that  we  find  it  impossible  to 
remedy  directly,  our  nature  tends  to  compensate 
itself  for  these  injuries  in  some  other  direction. 
In  the  case  of  a  normal  person,  the  repression  of 
his  personality  which  he  has  experienced  may 
spur  him  to  renewed  effort  and  to  the  achieve- 
ment of  extraordinary  success.  Thus  we  find 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  in  his  childhood,  when 
scorned  by  all  his  playmates  at  the  aristocratic 
French  military  academy,  plunging  into  His 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          175 

studies  and  evolving  his  plans  for  future  great- 
ness with  a  concentration  of  energy  which  goes 
far  to  explain  his  subsequent  career.  Again,  the 
philosopher  Kant  produced  his  system  of  meta- 
physics as  a  means  of  withdrawing  from  the 
physical  pain  which  his  illness  caused  him.  The 
neurotic  is  the  person  in  whom  this  compensation 
takes  a  useless  channel,  a  symbolical  and  merely 
delusive  channel,  or  in  which  it  goes  to  an  extreme 
that  is  as  bad  as  or  worse  than  the  original 
trouble  itself.  This  last  case,  that  of  swinging 
too  far  in  an  opposite  direction,  is  called  over- 
compensation,  and  it  is  part  of  the  explanation  of 
our  tendency  to  balk  our  own  conscious  desires, 
offend  our  patrons,  or  do  the  inappropriate  action. 

The  simplest  classification  of  conduct  is  into 
dichotomies  (division  of  two).  A  conveniently 
twice  dichotomised  classification  (Hopkins)  is 
into  two  out-going  drives,  Assimilative  and 
Erotic,  and  their  two  reversals,  the  Rejective  and 
Jealous.  We  shall  use  this  somewhat  in  this  book. 
Preference  is  given  the  term  Rejective  over 
the  term  Fugitive,  as  indicating  either  Fear  or 
Disgust  reactions,  and  agreeing  with  the  reflex 
noted  by  Wm.  James,  "turning  the  head  aside." 

James  discusses  men  under  head  of  two  types — 
"Tough-minded"  (emperical)  and  "Tender- 
minded"  (loving  theory).  Warringer's  two  oppo- 
sites  were  typified  respectively  by  Sympathy  and 
Abstraction.  For  Schiller  they  were  the  Naif  and 
the  Sentimental.  Nietzsche  mentions  Appollonian 


176          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

and  Dionysian.  Gross  gives  Weakness  and  Rein- 
forcement of  consecutive  function.  Freud  and 
Adler  dwell  upon  Casualism  and  Sentimentality. 
C.  G.  Jung,  who  has  made  this  list,  prefers  his 
own  division  into  Extravert  and  Introvert.  The 
Extrovert  is  wrapped  up  in  the  outer  world ;  con- 
sciously his  is  what  Thorndike  calls  an  "interest 
in  people  and  their  feelings;"  he  compromises 
readily  to  meet  facts.  The  introvert  is  self- 
centered;  consciously  his  is  what  Thorndike  calls 
the  "interest  in  things  and  their  mechanisms;" 
and  he  would  rather  go  thru  the  mountain  than 
around. 

One  of  Jung's  favorite  contributions  is  this  di- 
vision of  man  into  two  psychological  types — the 
extra  vert  type  and  the  introvert  type.  Some  of 
us  are  familiar  with  classifications  made  by  vari- 
ous men,  for  example,  Professor  James  divided 
man  into  the  tough-minded  and  the  tender- 
minded,  meaning  by  the  latter  the  men  who  reflect 
upon  their  ideas  they  create  philosophical  sys- 
tems, and  meaning  by  tough-minded  those  who 
are  imperical  in  their  point  of  view,  deal  with 
facts  rather  than  with  ideas,  etc.  Nietzsche  spoke 
of  the  Appolonian  and  Dionysiac  types  of  men, 
meaning  by  them  much  the  same  thing.  We  think 
Jung's  classification  is  really  the  clearest;  by  in- 
trovert he  means  the  type  of  man  whose  gaze 
turns  inward,  who  translates  the  whole  world  in 
terms  of  himself,  and  makes  it  simply  a  stage  for 
his  own  acting.  On  the  other  hand,  he  means  by 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          177 

the  extravert  the  man  whose  gaze  is  turned  out- 
ward upon  the  world  and  who  projects  into  that 
world  all  his  own  feelings,  reading  into  every- 
thing around  him  interpretations  which  really 
represent  himself.  The  introvert  is  the  man  of 
strong  character  becoming  often  perverse  and 
stubborn;  he  is  also  the  intellectual  man  and  the 
sentimental.  The  extrovert  is  the  matter-of-fact 
man,  the  materialist  in  philosophy,  the  pliable 
and  adaptable  individual,  hardly  understanding 
the  meaning  of  the  word  principle. 

By  the  introvert,  Jung  means  the  man  who  is 
all  absorbed  in  his  own  ideas  and  interprets  every 
phenomenon  in  terms  of  its  subjective  value  to 
himself.  This  type  it  is  which  elaborates  phil- 
osophical and  ethical  and  religious  systems,  which 
tries  to  cut  its  way  directly  through  every  obstacle 
instead  of  seeking  the  easier  way  around.  The 
extrovert,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  pliable  man 
who  is  little  concerned  with  the  inner  principles, 
but  adapts  himself  to  the  facts  of  the  world  as 
they  exist  and  who,  indeed,  interprets  his  own 
feelings  only  as  manifestations  of  the  attitude  of 
the  world  outside.  When  they  become  pathologi- 
cal, the  introvert  engrossed  in  himself  tends  to 
insanity ;  the  extravert,  on  the  other  hand,  attrib- 
uting his  own  lack  of  balance  entirely  to  the  sup- 
posed malevolence  of  the  outside  world,  becomes 
hysterical.  We  were  much  interested  in  what  Mr. 
Farrington  said  about  the  tendency  of  hysteria 
to  manifest  itself  only  among  the  men  and  non- 


178          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

commissioned  officers.  He  quoted  Arian  and  Yea- 
land  on  a  report  of  250  cases  as  saying:  "The 
majority  of  the  patients  are  below  the  average 
of  intelligence  as  judged  by  the  Binet-Simon  scale 
and  others  who  are  more  highly  equipped  prove  to 
have  an  unstable  history,  either  personally  or  in 
the  family."  Another  quotation  was,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  regarding  war  psychasthenia  "among 
officers  neurasthenic  symptoms  are  much  more 
frequent  than  hysteria,  and  MacCurdy  states  that 
in  a  pure  state  it  occurs  almost  exclusively  among 
officers."  If  these  authorities  can  be  relied  upon, 
rt  would  seem  that  the  more  ardent  objectively 
looking  natures  found  their  places  among  the 
ranks  and  among  those  non-commissioned  officers 
whose  business  it  is  to  deal  most  directly  with  the 
humanity  under  their  charge  and  not  to  have  the 
handling  of  the  mathematical  and  technical  prob- 
lems of  management ;  and  as  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  introversive  intellectual  calculating  type  of 
mind  tended  predominantly  to  assume  the  respon- 
sibilities of  officership. 

And  this  final  dichotomy  of  characters  is  based 
upon  an  alleged  division  of  the  mind  itself  into 
two  compartments,  conscious  and  unconscious. 
But  these  are  not  equal  in  volume.  The  mind 
rather  is  like  an  ice-berg  seen  at  sea, — a  little  part 
of  it  is  evident, — the  part  called  the  conscious, 
and  a  great  part  is  submerged  out  of  sight, — the 
unconscious. 

Due  to  this  fact  that  far  the  larger  part  of  our- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          179 

self  is  in  the  unconscious,  we  continually  are  de- 
ceiving ourselves  about  what  we  really  desire. 
Because  a  thing  is  abstractly  good,  or  good  for 
mankind  in  the  large,  and  because  we  have  a  good 
opinion  of  our  own  character,  we  proudly  say  we 
wish  that  thing.  Still  more  often,  the  opposite 
to  this  takes  place ;  our  0wn  desire  for  something 
is  so  urgent  that  we  decide  that  that  thing  is 
broadly  right  and  good. 

That  happiness  now  or  in  the  future,  for  one's 
self  or  for  others,  is  the  supreme  end  to  be  worked 
for,  is  a  postulate  that  has  appealed,  since  ancient 
times,  to  the  wise.  We  believe  that  proof  whether 
or  not  an  act  promotes  such  happiness,  would  be 
accepted  as  final  tesf  of  the  goodness  or  evil  of 
the  act  by  more  people  than  would  agree  to  any 
other  test. 

Biologically  considered,  happiness  is  the  indi- 
cation of  right  adjustment.  If  creatures  were 
happy  normally  in  what  was  harmful  for  their 
species,  their  kind  soon  would  cease  to  exist.  Let 
us,  by  explaining  one  or  two  facts  of  heredity  and 
evolution,  substantiate  this. 

The  principle  of  inheritance  sometimes  is  thot 
to  mean  that  a  parent  transmits  all  his  traits  to 
his  offspring.  No  such  theory  is  advanced  by 
scientists.  The  extreme  contrary  opinion  of  de 
Vries  is  now  prevalent,  that  the  offspring  inherits 
no  traits  whatever  except  about  half  those  which 
its  parents  themselves  inherited  at  conception — 
nothing  that  the  parents  acquired  after  conception 


180          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

— and  further  that  there  may  appear  in  the  off- 
spring, to  be  handed  down  to  future  descendants, 
freakish  new  "mutations"  which  never  before  ap- 
peared in  any  ancestor.  These  and  some  other 
laws  of  inheritance  have  been  adduced  by  statisti- 
cal methods  and  experiments,  of  which  the  classi- 
cal ones  are  those  of  Karl  Pearson  and  of  Gregor 
Mendel.  They  show  that  improvements  of  our 
race  will  be  limited  until  Eugenics — the  breeding 
from  the  stock  of  highest  inborn  (not  acquired) 
endowments— is  applied.  The  fact  that  some  en- 
thusiasts for  eugenics  habitually  over-state  their 
case  and  ignore  obvious  economic  and  other  en- 
vironmental factors,  shouldn't  obscure  this  truth, 
which  is  substantiated  by  all  we  know  of  biologi- 
cal evolution. 

Modern  ideas  of  evolution  date  from  Charles 
Darwin.  He  called  attention  to  the  improvement 
of  breeds  of  domestic  animals  which  resulted 
from  man  selecting  only  the  most  desirable  types 
to  be  parents.  In  his  "Origin  of  Species"  he  col- 
lected observations  —  sometimes  credulously  ac- 
cepting anecdotes  on  hearsay,  but  usually  more 
irrefutable  material — in  so  stupendous  quantity 
as  to  bear  down  all  opposition,  to  show  that  a 
competition  for  food  constantly  goes  on  between 
all  kinds  of  animals,  wherein  the  less  well-adapted 
succumb  and  leave  few  progeny.  Hence,  succeed- 
ing generations  are  descended  from  the  more  suc- 
cessful types,  and  inherit  their  traits ;  and  by  ac- 
cumulation of  new  traits  new  species  originate. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          181 

Thus  were  originated  men  as  well  as  other  ani- 
mals. Herbert  Spencer — simultaneously  working 
out  in  his  armchair  what  Darwin  was  observing 
as  the  result  of  explorations — named  this  process 
"the  survival  of  the  most  fit."  (Sometimes,  of 
course,  the  best  and  most  highly  evolved  creature 
is  less  "fit"  to  survive  than  some  noxious  para- 
sites, and  little-evolved  forms ;  e.  g.,  the  mammoth 
was  less  fit  than  the  bacterium.)  The  evolutionary 
hypothesis  has  become  the  underlying  concept  of 
all  the  biological  sciences.  To  question  it  is  less 
a  mark  of  independence  than  a  confession  of  ig- 
norance of  the  immense  and  constantly  increas- 
ing weight  of  evidence  on  which  it  rests.  We 
can  indicate  here  merely  some  fields  in  which 
these  proofs  will  be  found;  as:  (1)  animal 
breeding,  as  above  indicated.  (2)'  embryology. 
The  developing  embryo  recapitulates  roughly  the 
successive  primitive  types  thro  which  presumably 
the  animal  in  question  is  descended.  (3)  Pale- 
ontology. Buried  in  the  earth  are  found  skeletons 
of  living  and  of  extinct  forms  of  animals.  As  we 
explore  the  successively  deeper  and  older  strata 
of  the  earth's  crust,  the  skeletal  forms  become 
ever  more  similar  and  more  simple,  indicating 
that  eventually  all  types  are  derived  from  a  com- 
mon origin.  (4)  Distribution  of  flora  and  fauna 
over  the  earth's  surface  aren't  strictly  such  as 
climate  and  other  obvious  influences  will  account 
for, — especially  is  this  true  of  outlying  islands 
like  Australia.  But  as  we  know  the  approximate 


182          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

date  when  these  now  separated  continents  and  is- 
lands were  so  connected  "by  land,  that  immigra- 
tion of  animals  was  possible,  an  estimation  by 
the  evolutionary  theory  of  the  then  existing  flora 
and  fauna  of  neighboring  regions  enables  us  to 
account  very  well  for  the  distribution  observed 
today.  (5)  Structural  and  functional  resem- 
blances in  animals  are  accounted  for  only  by  the 
evolution-hypothesis.  (6)  Classification  into 
species,  genera,  sub-genera,  etc.,  follows  the  lines 
hypothecated  by  evolution.  (7)  Biology  finds 
certain  organs,  and  psychology  certain  mental 
dispositions,  which  are  unexplained  by  present 
usefulness,  but  can  be  accounted  for  on  the  theory 
of  evolutional  descent.  (8)  The  elapse  of  time 
demanded  for  the  evolution  of  existing  life-forms 
checks  up  moderately  well  with  the  time  calcu- 
lated by  geologists  as  having  elapsed  since  the 
earth  cooled  sufficiently  to  be  habitable.  (9) 
Biological  evolution  would  seem  reasonable  in  the 
light  of  cosmic  evolution  generally,  which  has  its 
own  proof  in  each  of  its  special  fields. 

We  return  to  the  remarks  which  preceded  the 
above  two  paragraphs.  The  high  value  men  place 
upon  happiness  indicates  that  happiness  is  usual- 
ly the  sign  of  biologically,  right  conditions.  For 
as  one  authority*  says,  this  emphasis  "occidental 
speculation"  appeared  very  early  and  vigorously 
asserted  by  many.  Sophist  Aristippus  and  his — 
Cyrenaic  School  made  hedonism  their  central 
doctrine.  .  .  .  Aristippus  seems  at  times  to 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          183 

have  insisted  upon  the  supreme  value  of  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  moment  and  to  have  lost  sight  of  the 
necessity,  even  for  securing  pleasure,  of  consider- 
ing the  future.  .  .  ,"14 

Such  a  view  undoubtedly  was  narrow.  In  these 
pages  we'll  show  that  we've  the  right  to  (and  a 
reason  for)  classifying  motives  into  the  following 
four  divisions;  themselves  an  evolutionary  hier- 
archy: Group  4  (highest)  all  our  yearnings  to 
make  an  objective  contribution  toward  the  greater 
happiness  of  the  world — which  Group  1  arbitrar- 
ily shall  call  "helpful"  tendencies.  Group  3  (the 
next  highest)  the  yearning  to  establish  ourselves 
individually  on  the  way  to  a  maximum  of  enjoy- 
ment of  our  life — a  group  we'll  call  the  "Privately 
Ambitious"  tendencies.  Group  2,  the  desires  of  the 
most  simple  unperverted  and  undeveloped  men. 
Group  1,  all  remaining  desires  or  motives — a 
group  we'll  call,  very  arbitrarily  no  doubt,  "Sen- 
sual-erratic" tendencies. 

To  each  of  these  groups  of  motives  corresponds 
a  certain  type  of  character,  which  in  the  degree 
that  it  is  a  pure  type,  expresses  itself  thru  acts 
of  one  or  the  other  kind,  and  is  itself  happy  there- 
in. It  is  folly  to  teach,  as  did  the  old  Sunday 
school  text,  that  Mr.  X,  whose  character  is  nar- 
row and  crabbed,  would  be  happy  if  he  were  to 
spend  his  time  ministering  to  others  instead  of 
being  ministered  unto — for  so  long  as  no  change 
of  heart  has  come  from  within,  Mr.  X  would  feel 


^International    Encyclopaedia, 


184          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

that  in  so  doing  he  was  acting  like  a  silly  senti- 
mentalist. No  more  use  is  it  to  argue,  as  many 
philosophies  have  done  that  Miss  Y,  whose  char- 
acter is  weak  and  sensual,  would  find  more  happi- 
ness in  a  life  of  self -disciplined  abstemiousness — 
for  so  long  as  she  remains  a  sensualist  every  in- 
dulgence missed  seems  an  irreparable  loss,  and 
rankles  in  her  conscience.  These  arguments  over- 
stated the  case  just  enough  to  give  it  all  away — 
to  give  away  the  fact  that  they  were  not  ingenu- 
ous, but  were  designed  to  persuade  all  hearers  to 
behave  in  the  way  that  was  considered  to  be 
moral.  So  they  smacked  of  insincerity,  and  failed 
to  reform  the  world. 

Yet  in  saying  that  they  overstated  their  case 
we're  tacitly  admitting  that  such  arguments  just 
missed  the  point  of  a  great  truth.  That  truth  is, 
that  the  sensualist,  tho  happier  in  acting  as  most 
natural  to  him  rather  than  as  would  be  natural 
say  for  a  schemer  or  an  idealist  or  least  of  all  an 
altruist  to  act,  yet  is  on  the  whole  the  least  happy 
type  of  being.  It  will  pay  him  to  change  his  char- 
acter if  he  can  even  by  the  uncongenial  method 
of  practicing  virtues  that  conform  to  a  more  stable 
disposition. 

And  the  ambitious  person,  tho  happier  when 
absorbed  in  promoting  his  own  interests  than 
when  trying  to  play  idealist  or  altruist,  and  tho 
not  subject  to  the  physical  aftermaths  suffered 
as  result  of  his  debauches  by  the  sensualist,  yet 
must  endure  great  despairs.  If  all  is  for  self,  he 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          185 

will  surely  find  that  all  is  not  worth  while.  It 
will  profit  him  to  cultivate  deliberately  the  qual- 
ities of  higher  types  of  character. 

A  happier  lot  is  that  of  the  idealist.  He  flits 
about  from  illusion  to  illusion,  coloring  the  gray 
stones  of  rife  for  us  with  bright-hued  paint.  He 
reads  ir.oral  purposes  into  the  universe,  and  ex- 
cuses himself  from  seeing  the  world's  misery  or 
from  helping  quite  effectively,  on  the  score  that 
this  is  a  moral  universe  in  which  all  must  be  for 
the  best.  But  in  the  end  the  shams  have  a  way  of 
crushing  in  this  delicate  rosy  shell  in  which  he 
has  enclosed  his  life,  and  then  he  feels  the  un- 
satisfactoriness  of  mere  ideals  in  themselves,  and 
the  need  of  founding  them  upon  a  plan  to  do  defi- 
nite good  in  the  world. 

Finally,  you  may  expect  us  to  say  that  com- 
plete happiness  comes  in  proportion  to  the  attain- 
ment of  complete  selflessness.  Unfortunately 
we're  not  convinced  that  completely  selfless  exist- 
ence ever  is  actually  attained.  Moreover,  as  one 
approximates  more  perfectly  the  type  of  charac- 
ter which  has  identified  itself  with  the  yearnings 
of  humanity,  one  may  find  that  it  has  taken  on 
many  new  sorrows  on  this  behalf,  and  certainly 
it  will  be  compelled  to  hold  itself  ever  ready  to 
make  a  supreme  sacrifice  even  of  health,  liberty 
and  life  for  the  cause  it  espouses.  Nevertheless, 
this  acquisition  of  world-cares  is  compensated  for 
by  a  dropping  off  of  petty  private  worries,  which 
now  seem  too  trivial.  Sacrifices  themselves, 


186          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

when  demanded  from  one  who  has  attained  true 
devoteeship,  find  such  a  one  prepared  to  yield 
them.  It's  because  this  type  has  in  loftiness  of 
motive  a  source  of  strength  above  that  of  ordi- 
nary men,  that  the  latter  are  bewildered  to  see  him 
emerge  triumphant  over  their  persecutions.  So 
we  think  he  is,  after  all,  the  happiest  kind  of  be- 
ing, the  type  into  which  it  will  pay  all  others  to 
try  to  evolve.  He  alone  amid  privation  constant- 
ly experiences  ecstacy. 

In  order  to  be  happy,  the  first  essential15  is  right 
desires.  It's  self-evident  that  if  we  desire  only 
what's  wholesome,  right,  and  obtainable,  our 
health'll  be  good,  ouv  desires  in  the  process  of 
satisfaction,  and  consequently  we  are  always 
happy.  But  how  shall  we  gain  this  friendliness 
on  the  part  of  our  desires  ?  How  reach  them  ? 

"Tomorrow's  desires  are  crystalized  from  the 
ocean  of  today's  purposive  conduct;  they're  the 
salt  that  its  waves  will  leave  behind.  That  ocean 
itself  is  being  formed  every  moment,  from  clouds 
of  self-suggestion  and  nebulous  impression  and 
habits,  borne  hither  on  yesterday's  winds  of  time 
and  circumstance.  Started  fortunately  in  the  de- 
sire for  self -improvement,  our  task  is  to  control 
the  influences  that  are  likely  to  be  assimilated  un- 
consciously, and  purge  one's  self  of  all  cant  and 
cobwebs  that  interfere  with  diligent  earnestness. 
As  a  last  step  in  this  cycle  of  growth,  we  must 
ensure  the  success  of  the  whole  process,  by  doing 
it  in  a  normal,  happy  spirit." 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          187 

We  still  need  to  consider  how  far  the  need  to 
take  on  an  unpleasant  attitude  toward  the  world 
may  or  may  not  be  demanded  by  one's  condition 
as  a  competitor  in  the  economic  market. 

First,  one  needs  to  take  a  certain  shrewd  and 
cynical  view  of  the  likelihood  of  affairs,  or  of 
people,  turning  out  as  beneficent  and  honest  as 
we  should  like  to  have  them, — even  tho  one  may 
find  it  expedient  pu'blicly  to  pretend  that  he  be- 
lieves in  them  (in  order  not  to  make  their  chances 
any  slimmer  than  they  already  are). 

Secondly,  a  state  of  complete  satisfaction15  is 
a  state  not  merely  of  no  progress,  but  of  no  effort 
to  stem  the  currents  of  disintegration  which 
everywhere  make  true  "standing  still"  an  impos- 
sible thing  in  life. 

To  be  sure  the  state  of  Happiness  does  give  a 
certain  spontaneity  of  performance,  a  light-heart- 
edness  in  the  execution  of  duties  that  are  plain  to 
view,  which,  far  from  seeming  to  accomplish  less 
progress  than  before,  rather  seems  to  accomplish 
more.  Yet  a  careful  examination  of  the  facts  will 
show  that  this  efficiency  in  activity  is  only  in  the 
settlement  of  problems  that  have  been  forced  upon 
our  attention,  already,  in  less  happy  periods,  and 
that  the  hour  of  happiness  is  the  hour  of  forget- 
fulness  of  problems,  not  of  raising  them  or  hold- 
ing them  in  mind.  The  fact  seems  to  be  corrobor- 


^May  we  be  unsatisfied,  yet  happy  ?  Recently  a.  Freudian  asked 
us  to  substitute  "greatest  satisfaction"  for  "greatest  happiness ;"  w« 
declined  to  do  so.  They're  hardly  equivalent,  since  we  may  be  most 
happy  in  the  initial  process  of  satisfying  a  desire,  or  even  in  mere 
anticipation  of  doing  so. 


188          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ated  by  history,  that  periods  of  a  people's  greatest 
joyousness  nearly  always  are  followed  by  periods 
of  retrogression  and  decline.  (That  the  epoch  of 
the  greatest  Grecian  Art,  the  Golden  Age,  the 
very  embodiment  of  Joy,  should  be  followed  by 
Grecian  decadence,  may  be  thus  a  more  significant 
fact  than  has  been  realized.  One  people  may  be 
inherently  more  joyous  than  another  and  at  the 
same  time  more  progressive  because  endowed  with 
great  virility.  We  have  a  tendency  to  think  that 
qualities  in  people  necessarily  balance  up  to  about 
the  same  value  in  the  end.  We  repeat,  "quickly 
learned,  as  quickly  forgotten,"  and  many  similar 
catch-words  till  we  believe  them;  but  psychology 
gives  them  no  support.  On  the  contrary,  experi- 
ment shows  that  super-excellence  in  one  quality 
generally  gives  a  slight  probability  of  superiority 
in  other  qualities  also. 

SECTION  3 

"No  profit  grows  where  is  no  pleasure  ta  'en 
In  brief,  sir,  study  what  you  most  affect."17 

"If  you  mean  to  profit,  learn  to  please."18 
"Everywhere  a  magnetic  personality  wins  its 
way."  "A  pleasant  smile  brings  the  largest  re- 
turns on  the  investment." 

The  present  section  of  this  chapter  is  intended 
for  the  person  whose  interest  is  in  promoting 
his  own  future  well-being.  Compared  with  An- 

"Shakespeare — Taming:  the   Shrew — Act   1,    Scene   1,    Line   39. 
18Churchill—  Gotham  Book   II,   Line  88. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          189 

axagores  "Epicurns  laid  more  value  on  the  neces- 
sity of  choosing  'productive'  pleasures,  to  use 
Bentham's  phraseology,  i.  e.,  pleasures  whose  con- 
sequences were  not  painful."19 

The  normal  person,  even  the  normal  child,  will 
admit  that  whatever  he  desires  for  himself  he 
wouldn't  desire  were  he  convinced  he'd  be  un- 
happy with  it,  and  that  by  a  similar  logic  what 
he  wishes  for  the  sake  of  another,  or  for  the  sake 
of  religion,  he'd  no  longer  wish  were  he  convinced 
it  wouldn't  affect  as  he  now  anticipates  the  happi- 
ness of  his  friend,  or  of  God,  or  of  someone. 

Examinations  that  have  been  made  of  the  per- 
spiration exuded  by  men  in  varying  emotional 
moods,  show  that  in  malevolent  moments,  as  in 
miserable  ones,  certain  poisons  are  secreted  which 
aren't  given  off  in  kindly  moods  any  more  than 
in  agreeable  moments.  This  seems  to  be  one  of 
the  reasons  why  evil  as  well  as  unhappy  disposi- 
tions so  often  can  be  read  by  the  ugly  effects  these 
have  upon  the  body  and  face,  while  good  as  well 
as  happy  dispositions  favor  beauty.  It's  a  matter 
of  health  to  be  kindly;  to  be  angry  limits  us; 
wherever  we'd  expand,  hatred  makes  us  feel  that 
enemies  shut  us  in.  We  become  a  part  of  all  that 
we  love,  through  affection  we  experience  the  air 
of  a  new  and  wonderful  freedom.  No  power  can 
give  us  joy  and  freedom  save  we  accept  the  gift. 

Yet  that  men  may  differ  from  this  point  of  view 
is  proven  by  the  numbers  who  actually  do  so 


1!>Inten\ational    Encyclopaedia. 


190          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

differ.  How  shall  we  expect  all  men  ever  to  agree 
upon  anything,  when  we  see  great  numbers  seri- 
ously affirming  that  the  very  noses  on  their  faces 
are  "error?"20  And  indeed  when  men  accept  the 
happiness-motive  in  the  narrow  sense  of  believ- 
ing they  must  live  for  themselves  alone,  their  high 
expectations  are  so  thoroly  disappointed,  that  it's 
no  wonder  many  of  them  in  disgust  conclude  that 
something  other  than  happiness  at  all  must  be 
the  final  good. 

We  may  sum  up  this  section  of  our  essay  by 
saying  that  as  man  isn't  necessarily  driven  by  a 
desire  for  immediate  indulgences,  he  may  well 
choose  to  postpone  indulgences  for  the  sake  of 
more  enduring  happiness  for  himself,  and  that 
this  course  has  been  advocated  by  many  philoso- 
phers among  whom,  in  ancient  times,  perhaps  the 
most  famous  was  Epicurus. 

But  the  man  who  has  chosen  a  philosophy  of 
Egoism  seldom  fellows  it  consistently.  Somehow 
it  fails  to  satisfy  his  whole  nature.  How  often  we 
hear  of  one  to  whom  apparently  life  held  out 
every  allurement  of  health,  wealth,  friends,  etc., 
but  who  sickened  of  it  all  and  perhaps  even  killed 
himself?  This  is  because  a  self -centered  life  isn't 
a  mentally  wholesome  life.  "Think  about  your- 
self if  you  want  to  be  miserable,"  runs  a  proverb. 
Insanity  frequently  developes  out  of  this  attitude. 
Does  this  indicate  that  perhaps  the  egotist's  logic 


20Tho   petitioning    for   a    Rovernment    pension    when    said    "error"    is 
shot  off  in   the  war.      See  The  Truth   Seeker,   March,    1919. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          191 

is  somewhere  wrong — has  his  cynical  calculation 
been,  after  all,  blind? 

The  yearning  of  the  idealist  to  devote  himself 
to  some  activity  for  its  own  sake,  or  for  some  ef- 
fect not  reducible  into  terms  of  happiness,  is 
therefore  quite  admissible  as  a  psychological  pos- 
sibility. 

"For  as  man  is  naturally  a  gregarious  animal, 
so  is  he  in  need  of  maintaining  his  heart  warm, 
as  well  as  his  head  cool.  Toward  his  kindred  and 
indeed  toward  all  living  creatures,  his  attitude  in- 
variably must  be  one  of  benevolence.  Toward 
their  follies,  and  even  their  apologies,  he  must  be 
good  naturedly  tolerant. 

"In  the  form  of  a  pretty  fairy  tale,  'La  Foret 
Enchantee  et  le  Petit  Enfant,'21  Mme.  Perrier 
tells  how  the  innocent  and  happy  eyes  of  children 
discover  beautiful  realities  which  can't  endure  the 
rough  presence  of  sordid  adults;  'ils  marchaient 
sans  les  voir  sur  toutes  les  petites  fleurs  at  tous 
les  oiseaux  effrayes  se  taisaient  dans  les 
branches.' ' 

But  can  he  carry  this  to  the  point  of  actually 
omitting  self  entirely  as  a  factor  in  the  problem? 
Motives  in  the  best  of  us  are  so  infinitely  complex, 
that  to  assert  of  any  act  that  it's  a  pure  expres- 
sion even  of  one  of  the  lower  tendencies  is  always 
pVecarious;  much  more  hazardous  would  it  be  to 
designate  a  case  of  unalloyed  altruism,  at  least 
before  the  most  exhaustive  analysis. 

21Mme.  Jeanne  Perrier, — Pendant  qu'on  Dort,  published  by  Lamertin. 
Bruxelles. 


192          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

SECTION  4 

"The  true  measure  of  a  man's  success  is  the 
service  which  he  renders,  not  the  pay  he  exacts 
for  it.  The  true  measure  of  a  man's  ability  is 
the  power  to  help  others  and  to  contribute  to  their 
advancement."22 

"By  love,  serve  one  enother." 

"Sweet  mercy  is  nobility's  true  badge."23 

This  fourth  section  will  deal  with  the  will  to 
bring  the  greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  num- 
ber. 

If  the  desire  for  humanitarian  service  be  at 
first  lacking,  it  can,  with  patience,  be  cultivated. 
McKeever24  gives  a  helpful  hint  on  this  point: 
"While  engaged  in  giving  a  public  address,  he 
has  often  found  it  possible  to  engender  in  himself 
a  pronounced  emotion  of  sympathy  by  means  of 
lowering  his  voice"  and  otherwise  assuming  a 
sympathetic  manner. 

That  acts  of  pure  goodness  on  rare  occasions 
actually  may  be  performed  is  the  belief  of  com- 
petent psychologists  today, — in  contrast  to  what 
was  held  true  in  old  time. 

"All  the  ancients,"  says  the  International  En- 
cyclopaedia, "were  agreed  that  the  pleasure  of 
the  agent  was  for  the  agent  himself,  the  supreme 
end.  A  disinterested  desire  for  someone  else's 


"President  Hadley  of  Yale. 

-^Shakespeare. 

"Psychology   and   Higher   Life. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          193 

good  was  not  recognized  as  possible;  or  if  pos- 
sible, it  was  regarded  as  perverse.  Early  modern 
Hedonists  (Hobles,  Locke)  were  almost  or  quite 
as  individualistic  as  the  ancients.  But  with  Cum- 
berland, Hutcheson,  and  Hume,  a  new  phase  of 
hedonism  was  introduced,  viz.,  the  theory  that  not 
the  agent's  greatest  pleasure,  but  'joy  in  widest 
comonalty  spread'  is  the  supreme  end  of  moral 
action  (universalistic  hedonism,  or  utilitarian- 
ism)." 

As  a  sample  of  the  positions  of  modern 
psychologists,  we  may  take  that  of  Pillsbury.* 
"The  gregarious  animals — exert  themselves  and 
even  suffer  in  behalf  of  the  herd,  as  the  male  deer 
are  said  to  form  a  circle  about  the  females  and 
the  young  and  to  risk  their  own  lives  in  defense 
of  the  unit.  This  instinct  may  be  justified  teleo- 
logically,  since  the  survival — of  the  race  depends 
upon  the  survival  of  the  larger.  .  .  ." 

Ellwood,  again,  in  his  "Sociology  in  its  Psycho- 
logical Aspects"  states:  "Quite  as  much  is  to  be 
said  for  sympathy  as  a  universally  important  ele- 
ment in  human  society  as  for  imitation.  In  the 
history  of  sociology,  when  it  is  finally  written, 
Professor  Giddings,  who  has  especially  stood  for 
the  recognition  of  this  element  of  sympathy,  will 
be  accorded  as  large  a  place  as  Tarde.  .  .  ,.*• 

"All  sympathy,  Ward  thinks,  comes  from  re- 
flection. .  .  .  Hence  sympathy,  he  thinks  is 
essentially  egoistic.  The  correct  statement,  how- 


194          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ever,  would  be  that  sympathy  is  at  first  entirely 
organic  and  instinctive,  and — altruistic." 

On  page  313  he  continues,  "The  sympathetic 
emotions  are  the  accompaniments  of  altruistic 
impulses.  .  .  .  Sympathy  accompanies  altru- 
istic activity  and  reinforces  it  everywhere.  .  .  . 
Philanthropic  activities  must  be  regarded  as  very 
largely  a  development  due  to  the  increase  of  sym- 
pathy in  the  sense  of  altruistic  feeling  in  human 
society." 

Even  the  individualistic  Metchinkoff,  in  his 
"Prolongation  of  Life,"  page  221,  admits  that  "in 
times  of  want  the  worker-bees  sacrifice  their  own 
lives  and  give  the  queen  the  last  remnants  of  the 
food  supply  so  that  she  survives  them." 

John  Muir  says  of  his  boyhood  companions : 

"We  delighted  in  dog-fights,  and  even  in  the  hor- 
rid red  work  of  slaughter-houses,  often  running 
long  distances  and  climbing  over  walls  and  roofs 
to  see  a  pig  killed. 

"But  here  is  an  illustration  of  the  better  side 
of  the  boy  nature.  In  our  back  yard — a  pair  of 
robin-redbreasts  had  their  nest — (and  a  soldier) 
climbed  the  tree  and  robbed  it.  ...  I  remem- 
ber to  this  day  how  my  heart  fairly  ached  and 
choked  me.  .  .  .  Again  and  again  we  rehearsed 
the  sad  story  of  the  poor  bereaved  birds  and  could 
not  be  comforted.  .  .  ,24 

Lecky  says  that 

J4Muir,  John.     "My  Boyhood  and  Youth,"  pp.   26-28. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          195 

"When  Plutarch,  after  the  death  of  his  daugh- 
ter, was  writing  a  letter  of  consolation  to  his  wife, 
we  find  him  turning  away  from  all  the  common- 
places of  the  Stoics  as  the  recollection  of  one  sim- 
ple trait  of  his  little  child  rushed  upon  his  mind : 
'She  desired  her  nurse  to  press  even  her  dolls  to 
the  breast.  She  was  so  loving  that  she  wished 
everything  that  gave  her  pleasure  to  share  in  the 
best  of  what  she  had.'  "-6 

The  best  proof,  however,  because  it  can  raise  no 
possible  suspicion  that  any  factor  other  than  in- 
stinctive nature  plays  any  part,  is  that  taken  from 
the  world  of  lower  animals.  And  here  we  shall 
again  quote  from  our  old  friend,  Prince  Kropot- 
kin: 

"Facts  illustrating  mutual  aid  amidst  the 
termites,  the  ants  and  the  bees  are  too  well  known 
to  the  general  reader,  especially  thru  the  works 
of  Romanes,  L.  Buchner  and  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
that  I  may  limit  my  remarks  to  a  very  few  hints. 
If  we  take  an  ant's  nest,  we  not  only  see  that 
every  description  of  work — bearing  of  progeny, 
foraging,  building,  bearing  of  aphides,  and  so  on 
— is  performed  according  to  the  principles  of 
voluntary  mutual  aid;  we  must  also  recognize 
with  Forel  that  the  chief,  the  fundamental  feature 
of  the  life  of  many  species  of  ants  is  the  fact  and 
the  obligation  for  every  ant  of  sharing  its  food, 
already  swallowed  and  partly  digested,  with  every 


"Lecky.   W,   E.   H.      "History  of   European   Morals,"   pp.   242-243. 


196          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

member  of  the  community  which  may  apply  for 
it."27 

"The  numberless  associations  of  locusts,  vanes- 
sae,  cicindelae,  cicadae,  and  so  on,  are  practically 
quite  unexplored ;  but  the  very  fact  of  their  exist- 
ence indicates  that  they  must  be  composed  on 
about  the  same  principles  as  the  temporary  asso- 
ciations of  ants  or  bees  for  the  purposes  of  migra- 
tion. As  to  the  beetles,  we  have  quite  well-ob- 
served facts  of  mutual  help  amidst  the  burying 
beetles  (Necrophorus)." 

".  .  .  As  a  rule,  they  live  an  isolated  life,  but 
when  one  of  them  has  discovered  the  corpse  of  a 
mouse  or  a  bird,  which  it  hardly  could  manage  to 
bury  itself,  it  calls  four,  six  or  ten  other  beetles 
to  perform  the  operation  with  united  efforts.  .  . 
without  quarreling  as  to  which  of  them  will 
enjoy  the  privilege  of  laying  eggs  in  the  buried 
corpse.  And  when  Gleditsch  attached  a  dead  bird 
to  a  cross  made  out  of  two  sticks,  or  suspended  a 
toad  to  a  stick  planted  in  the  soil,  the  little  beetles 
would  in  the  same  friendly  way  combine  their 
intelligences  to  overcome  the  artifices  of  man. 
The  same  combination  of  efforts  has  been  noticed 
among  the  dung-beetles."28 

"As  to  the  big  Molucca  crab  (Lumulus),  I  was 
struck  (in  1882,  at  the  Brighton  Auarium)  with 
the  extent  of  mutual  assistance  which  the  clumsy 
animals  are  capable  of  bestowing  upon  a  comrade 


"Kropotkin,   P.,    "Mutual   Aid,"   p.    12. 
J8Kropotkin,  P.,  "Mutual  Aid,"  p.  10. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          197 

in  case  of  need.  One  of  them  had  fallen  upon 
its  back  in  a  corner  of  the  tank"  and  "its  com- 
rades came  to  the  rescue,  and  for  one  hour's  time 
I  watched  how  they  endeavored  to  help  their  fel- 
low prisoner."  And,  "after  many  attempts,  one 
of  the  helpers  would  go  in  the  depths  of  the  tank 
and  bring  two  other  crabs,  which  would  begin 
fresh  forces  the  same  pushing  and  lifting  of  their 
helpless  comrade,"  and,  "since  I  saw  that,  I  can- 
not refuse  credit  to  the  observation  quoted  by  Dr. 
Erasmus  Darwin — namely,  that  'the  common 
crab  during  the  moulting  season,  stations  as  senti- 
nel an  unmoulted  or  hard-shelled  individual  to 
prevent  marine  enemies  from  injuring  moulted 
individuals  in  their  unprotected  state.' 

"When  a  new  swarm  of  bees  is  going  to  leave 
the  hive  in  search  of  a  new  abode,  a  number  of 
bees  will  make  a  preliminary  exploration  of  the 
neighborhood,  and  if  they  discover, — say,  an  old 
basket, — they  will  take  possession  of  it,  clean  it, 
and  guard  it  sometimes  for  a  whole  week,  till  the 
swarm  comes  to  settle  therein."29 

"The  sociability  of  the  bees  is  the  more  instruc- 
tive as  predatory  instincts  and  laziness  continue 
to  exist  among  the  bees  as  well — about  the  sugar 
plantations  of  the  West  Indies  and  the  sugar  re- 
fineries of  Europe,  robbery,  laziness  and  very 
often  drunkenness  becomes  quite  usual  with  the 
bees.  We  thus  see  that  anti-social  instincts  con- 


iaGeorge    J.    Romanes'    "Animal    Intelligence,"    1st    edition,    p.    233. 
Quoted  by   Kropotkin,   P. — Mutual   Aid. 


198          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tinue  to  exist  amidst  the  bees  as  well ;  but  natural 
selection  continually  must  eliminate  them,  be- 
cause in  the  long  run  the  practices  of  solidarity 
proves  much  more  advantageous  to  the  species 
than  the  individuals  endowed  with  predatory  in- 
clinations. The  cunningest  and  shrewdest  are 
eliminated  in  favor  of  those  who  understand  the 
advantages  of  sociable  life  and  mutual  support." 
"I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  association  of  male 
and  female  for  rearing  their  offspring,  for  provid- 
ing it  with  food  during  their  first  steps  of  life,  or 
for  hunting  in  common ;  tho  it  may  be  mentioned 
by  the  way  that  such  associations  are  the  rule 
even  with  the  least  sociable  carnivores  and  rapa- 
cious birds ;  and  that  they  have  a  special  interest 
from  being  the  field  upon  which  tenderer  feelings 
may  develop  even  amidst  otherwise  most  cruel 
animals.  It  may  also  be  added  that  the  rarity  of 
associations  larger  than  that  of  the  family  among 
the  carnivores  and  the  birds  of  prey,  tho  mostly 
being  the  result  of  their  very  modes  of  feeding, 
can  also  be  explained  to  some  extent  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  change  produced  in  the  animal 
world  by  the  rapid  increase  of  mankind.  At  any 
rate,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  there  are  species 
living  a  quite  isolated  life  in  densely  inhabited 
regions,  while  the  same  species,  or  their  nearest 
congeners,  are  gregarious  in  uninhabited  coun- 
tries. Wolves,  foxes  and  several  birds  of  prey 
may  be  quoted  as  instances  in  point."30 


""Kropotkin,    P.,    "Mutual    Aid,"   p.    20. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          199 

"The  fishing  associations  of  the  pelicans  are 
certainly  worthy  of  notice  for  the  remarkable  or- 
der and  intelligence  displayed  by  these  clumsy 
birds.  They  always  go  fishing  in  numerous  bands, 
and,  having  chosen  an  appropriate  bay,  they  form 
a  wide  half -circle  in  face  of  the  shore,  and  narrow 
it  by  padding  toward  the  shore,  catching  all  fish 
that  happen  to  be  enclosed  in  the  circle.  On  nar- 
row rivers  and  canals  they  even  divide  into  two 
parties,  each  of  which  draws  up  on  a  half-circle, 
and  both  paddle  to  meet  each  other."  .  .  .  "No 
one  has  ever  seen  them  fighting  for  the  posses- 
sion of  either  the  bay  or  the  resting  place.  In 
South  America  they  gather  in  flocks  of  from  forty 
thousand  individuals,  part  of  which  enjoy  sleep 
while  others  watch,  and  others  again  go  fishing. 
And  finally,  I  should  be  doing  an  injustice  to  the 
much-calumniated  house-sparrows  if  I  did  not 
mention  how  faithfully  each  of  them  shares  any 
food  it  discovers  with  all  members  of  the  society 
to  which  it  belongs."31 

"The  cranes  are  extremely  sociable  and  live  in 
most  excellent  relations,  not  only  with  their  con- 
geners, but  also  with  most  aquatic  birds."  .  .  . 
"Their  sentries  always  keep  watch  around  a  flock 
which  is  feeding  or  resting,  and  the  hunters  know 
well  how  difficult  it  is  to  approach  them.  If  man 
has  succeeded  in  surprising  them  they  will  never 
return  to  the  same  place  without  having  sent  out 
one  single  scout  first,  and  a  party  of  scouts  after- 


3IKropotkin,    P.,    "Mutual   Aid,"   p.   24. 


200          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

wards ;  and  when  the  reconnoitering  party  returns 
and  reports  that  there  is  no  danger,  a  second 
group  of  scouts  is  sent  out  to  verify  the  first  re- 
port, before  the  whole  band  moves.  With  kin- 
dred species  the  cranes  contract  real  friendship; 
and  in  captivity  there  is  no  bird  save  the  also  so- 
ciable and  highly  intelligent  parrot,  which  enters 
into  such  real  friendship  with  man."32 

"And  feelings  of  justice  develop,  more  or  less, 
with  all  gregarious  animals.  Whatever  the  dis- 
tance from  which  the  swallows  or  the  cranes 
come,  each  one  returns  to  the  nest  it  has  built  or 
repaired  last  year.  If  a  lazy  sparrow  intends  ap- 
propriating the  nest  which  a  comrade  is  building, 
or  even  steals  from  it  a  few  sprays  of  straw,  the 
group  interferes  against  the  lazy  comrade;  and 
it  is  evident  that  without  such  interference  being 
the  rule,  no  nesting  associations  of  birds  could 
exist.  Separate  groups  of  penguins  have  separ- 
ate nesting  places  and  separate  fishing  abodes, 
and  do  not  fight  for  them.  The  droves  of  cattle 
in  Australia  have  particular  spots  to  which  each 
group  repairs  to  rest,  and  from  which  it  never 
deviates;  and  so  on.  We  have  any  number  of 
direct  observations  of  the  peace  that  prevails  in 
the  nesting  associations  of  birds,  the  villages  of 
the  rodents,  and  the  herds  of  grass-eaters."  .  .  . 
Leaving  aside  the  really  touching  facts  of  mutual 
attachment  and  comparison  which  have  been  re- 
corded as  regards  domesticated  animals  and  with 


^Kropotkin,   P.,   "Mutual   Aid,'"  p.   27. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          201 

animals  kept  in  captivity,  we  have  a  number  of 
well  certified  facts  of  compassion  between  wild. 
animals  at  liberty.  Max  Perty  and  L.  Buchner 
have  given  a  number  of  such  facts  (2).  J.  C. 
Wood's  narrative  of  a  weasel  which  came  to  pick 
up  and  carry  away  an  injured  comrade  enjoys  a- 
well-merited  popularity.  So  also  the  observations 
of  Captain  Stansburg  on  his  journey  to  Utah 
which  is  quoted  by  Darwin ;  he  saw  a  blind  peli- 
can which  was  fed,  and  well  fed,  by  other  pelicans 
upon  fishes  which  had  to  be  brought  from  a  dis- 
tance of  thirty  miles.  And  when  a  herd  of. 
vicunas  was  hotly  pursued  by  hunters,  H.  A.  Wed- 
dell  saw  more  than  once  during  his  journey  to 
Bolivia  and  Peru  the  strong  males  covering  the 
retreat  of  the  herd,  and  lagging  behind  in  order 
to  protect  the  retreat.  As  to  facts  of  compassion 
with  wounded  comrades,  they  are  continually 
mentioned  by  all  field  zoologists.  Such  facts  are 
quite  natural.  Compassion  is  a  necessary  out- 
come of  social  life." 

"Brehm  has  so  admirably  summed  up  the  man- 
ners of  life  of  the  parrot."  .  .  .  "The  members 
of  each  band  remain  faithfully  attached  to  each 
other  and  they  share  in  common  good  or  bad 
luck."  .  .  .  "They  post  sentries  to  keep  watch 
over  the  safety  of  the  whole  band."33 

A  more  concise  argument  on  the  possibility  of 
unselfish  conduct  is  found  in  the  second  part  of 


33Kropotkin,   P.,  "Mutual  Aid,"  pp.  28-29. 


202          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Dewey  and  Tufts'  Ethics,  from  which  the  follow- 
ing is  taken : 

"1.  The  Theory"  (namely  that  all  conduct  is 
necessarily  egoistic)  "exaggerates  the  role  of  an- 
tagonistic competitive  struggle  in  the  Darwinian 
theory."34  (a)  The  initial  step  in  any  "prog- 
ress" is  variation;  this  is  not  so  much  struggle 
against  other  organisms,  as  it  is  invention  or  dis- 
covery of  some  new  way  of  acting,  involving  bet- 
ter adaptation  of  hitherto  merely  latent  natural 
resources,  use  of  some  possible  food  or  shelter  not 
previously  utilized.  The  struggle  against  other 
organisms  at  work  preserves  from  elimination  a 
species  already  fixed — quite  a  different  thing 
from  the  variation  which  occasions  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  higher  or  more  complex  species,  (b) 
Moreover,  so  far  as  the  Darwinian  theory  is  con- 
cerned, the  "struggle  for  existence"  may  take  any 
conceivable  form ;  rivalry  in  generosity,  in  mutual 
aid  and  support,  may  be  the  kind  of  competition 
best  fitted  to  enable  a  species  to  survive.  It  not 
only  may  be  so,  but  it  is  so  within  certain  limits. 
The  rage  for  survival,  for  power,  must  not  be  as- 
serted indiscriminately ;  the  mate  of  the  other  sex, 
the  young,  to  some  extent  other  individuals  of  the 
same  kind  are  spared,  or,  in  many  cases,  pro- 
tected and  nourished,  (c)  The  higher  the  form 
of  life,  the  more  effective  the  two  methods  just 
suggested:  namely,  the  method  of  intelligence  in 
discovering  and  utilizing  new  methods,  tools  and 


34Dewey  &  Tufts'  Ethics. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  203 

resources  as  substituted  for  the  direct  method  of 
brute  conflict;  and  the  method  of  mutual  protec- 
tion and  care  substituted  for  mutual  attack  and 
combat.  It  is  among  the  lower  forms  of  life,  not 
as  the  theory  would  require  among  the  higher 
types,  that  conditions  approximate  its  picture  of 
the  gladiatorial  show.  The  higher  species  among 
the  vertebrates,  as  among  insects  (like  ants  and 
bees),  are  the  "sociable"  kind.  It  is  sometimes 
argued  that  Darwinism  carried  into  morals  would 
abolish  charity :  all  care  of  the  hopelessly  invalid, 
of  the  economically  dependent,  and  in  general  of 
all  the  weak  and  helpless  except  healthy  infants. 
It  is  argued  that  all  current  standards  are  senti- 
mental and  artificial,  aiming  to  make  survive 
those  who  are  unfit,  and  thus  tending  to  destroy 
the  conditions  that  make  for  advance,  and  to  in- 
troduce such  as  make  towards  degeneration.  But 
this  argument  (1)  wholly  ignores  the  reflex  effect 
of  interest  in  those  who  are  ill  and  defective  in 
strengthening  solidarity — in  promoting  those  ties 
and  reciprocal  interests  which  are  as  much  the 
prerequisites  of  strong  individual  characters  as 
they  are  of  a  strong  social  group.  And  (2)  it 
fails  to  take  into  account  the  stimulus  to  fore- 
sight, to  scientific  discovery,  and  practical  inven- 
tion, which  has  proceeded  from  interest  in  the 
helpless,  the  weak,  the  sick,  the  disabled,  blind, 
deaf  and  insane.  Taking  the  most  coldly  scien- 
tific view  the  gains  in  these  two  respects  have 
thru  the  growth  of  socialism,  particularly  of  care 


204          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

for  the  unfortunate,  been  purchased  more  cheaply 
than  we  can  imagine  there  being  bought  in  any 
other  way.  In  other  words  the  chief  objection 
to  this  "naturalistic"  ethics  is  that  it  overlooks 
the  fact  that,  even  from  the  Darwinian  point  of 
view,  the  human  animal  is  a  human  animal.  It 
forgets  that  the  sympathetic  and  social  instincts, 
those  which  cause  the  individual  to  take  the  in- 
terests of  others  for  his  own  and  thereby  to  re- 
strain is  sheer  brute  self  assertiveness,  are  the 
highest  achievements,  the  high-water  mark  of 
evolution.  The  theory  urges  systematic  relapse 
to  lower  and  foregone  stages  of  biological  develop- 
ment." 

We  omit,  until  our  discussion,  in  a  later  essay 
on  sympathy,  the  rest  of  Dewey's  argument,  save 
only  his  conclusion : 

"1.  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  OTHER-RE- 
GARDING SPRINGS  TO  ACTION.— Only  the 
preconceptions  of  hedonistic  psychology  would 
ever  lead  one  to  deny  the  existence  of  reactions 
and  impulses  called  out  by  the  sight  of  others' 
misery  and  joy  and  which  tend  to  increase  the 
latter  and  to  relieve  the  former.  Recent  psycholo- 
gists (writing,  of  course,  quite  independently  of 
ethical  controversies)  offer  lists  of  native  instinc- 
tive tendencies  such  as  the  following:  Anger, 
jealousy,  rivalry,  secretiveness,  acquisitiveness, 
fear,  shyness,  sympathy,  affection,  pity,  sexual 
love,  curiosity,  imitation,  play,  constructiveness. 
In  this  inventory,  the  first  seven  may  be  said  to 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          205 

be  aroused  specially  by  situations  having  to  do 
with  the  preservation  of  the  self ;  the  next  four 
are  responses  to  stimuli  proceeding  especially 
from  others  and  tending  to  consequences  favor- 
able to  them,  while  the  last  four  are  mainly  im- 
personal. But  the  division  into  self-regarding 
and  other-regarding  is  not  exclusive  and  absolute. 
Anger  may  be  wholly  other-regarding,  as  in  the 
case  of  hearty  indignation  at  wrongs  suffered  by 
others;  rivalry  may  be  generous  emulation  or  be 
directed  toward  surpassing  one's  own  past  record. 
Love  between  the  sexes,  which  should  be  the 
source  of  steady,  far-reaching  interest  in  others, 
and  which  at  times  expresses  itself  in  supreme 
abnegation  of  devotion,  easily  becomes  the  cause 
of  brutal  and  persistent  egoism.  In  short,  the 
division  into  egoistic  and  altruistic  holds  only 
'other  things  being  equal.' 

"Confining  ourselves  for  the  moment  to  the  na- 
tive psychological  equipment,  we  may  say  that 
man  is  endowed  with  instinctive  promptings 
which  naturally  (that  is,  without  the  interven- 
tion of  deliberation  or  calculation)  tend  to  pre- 
serve the  self  (by  aggressive  attack  as  in  anger, 
or  in  protective  retreat  as  in  fear)  ;  and  to  de- 
velop his  powers  (as  in  acquisitiveness,  construc- 
tiveness,  and  play)  ;  and  which  equally  without 
consideration  of  resulting  ulterior  benefit  either 
to  self  or  to  others,  tend  to  bind  the  self  closer 
to  others  and  to  advance  the  interests  of  others — 
as  pity,  affectionateness,  or  again,  constructive- 


206  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ness  and  play.  Any  given  individual  is  naturally 
an  erratic  mixture  of  fierce  insistence  upon  his 
own  welfare  and  of  profound  susceptibility  to 
the  happiness  of  others — different  individuals 
varying  much  in  the  respective  intensities  and 
proportions  of  the  two  tendencies." 

Conceding  the  point  that  no  inherent  principle 
of  his  organization  absolutely  requires  mankind 
to  pursue  happiness  as  its  goal,  still  sentiment  is 
growing  that  all  other  values  are  reducible  ulti- 
mately into  terms  of  happiness  for  self  or  happi- 
ness for  someone  else. 

This  doctrine,  termed  "hedonism,"  is  thus  traced  in 
the  International  Encyclopaedia. 

"The  term  'Utilitarian'  was  put  into  currency  by  J.  S. 
Mill,  who  noticed  it  in  a  novel  of  Gait;  but  it  was  first 
suggested  by  Bentham.  .  .  . 

"The  history  of  Utilitarianism  .  .  .  falls  into  three  divi- 
sions which  may  be  termed  theological,  political,  and 
evolutional  respectively. 

"It  is  in  a  clerical  work  written  to  refute  Bishop 
Cumberland  De  Legibus  Naturae  (in  1672)  that  we  find 
the  beginnings,  of  utilitarianism.  Hobbe's  conception  of 
the  state  of 'nature  antecedent  to  organization  as  a 
state  of  war  .  .  .  was  .  .  .  offensive.  Cumberland  .... 
does  ....  lay  much  stress  upon  the  naturally  social 
character  of  man  ....  The  further  development  of  the- 
ological utilitarianism  was  conditioned  by  opposition  to 
the  moral  sense  doctrine  of  Shaftesbury  and  Hutcheson. 
Both  these  writers,  more  particularly  the  latter,  had 
postulated  in  controverting  Hobbes  the  existence  of  a 
moral  sense  to  explain  the  fact  that  we  approve  benevo- 
lent actions,  done  either  by  ourselves  or  others,  which 
bring  no  advantage  to  ourselves.  There  was  a  general 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          207 

feeling  that  the  advocates  of  the  moral  sense  claimed  too 
much  for  human  nature  and  that  they  assumed  a  degree 
of  unselfishness  and  a  natural  inclination  toward  virtue 
which  by  no  means  corresponded  with  the  hard  facts. 
The  fire  of  human  enthusiasm  burnt  low  in  the  18th 
century,  and  theologians  shared  the  general  conviction 
that  self-interest  was  the  ruling  principle  of  men's  con- 
duct. Moral  sense  seemed  to  them  ....  dangerous  to  the 
interest  of  religion  ....  for  what  should  be  said  to  a 
man  who  might  affirm  that,  just  as  he  had  no  ear  for 
music,  he  was  insensitive  to  ethical  differences  .  .  .  ? 
Moreover  if  mere  sense  were  sufficient  to  direct  our  con- 
duct, what  need  had  we  for  religion?  ....  John  Gay,.  .  .  . 
in  a  dissertation  prefixed  to  Laws'  translation  of  .... 
Origin  of  Evil  (...  1731)  ...  .says.  .  .  .this — that  vir- 
tue is  benevolence,  and  that  benevolence  is  incumbent 
upon  each  individual  because  it  leads  to  his  individual 
happiness  ....  Further  advances  along  the  same  line  of 
thought  were  made  by  Abraham  Tucker  in  his  Light  of 
Nature  Pursued  (.  .  .  .  1768-74).  Gay  and  Tucker  sup- 
plied nearly  all  the  important  ideas  of  Paleq's  Principles 
of  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy  (....  1785)  .... 
Hume's  Inquiry  concerning  the  Principles  of  Morals 
(.  ...1751)....  though  utilitarianism  is  very  far  from 
being  theological  ....  points  out  that  the  essence  of 
benevolence  is  to  increase  the  happiness  of  others.  Thus 
he  establishes  the  principle  of  utility.  "Personal  merit" 
he  says,  "consists  entirely  in  the  usefulness  or  agreeable- 
ness  of  qualities  to  the  person  himself  possessed  of  them, 
or  to  others  who  have  any  intercourse  with  him  .  .  .  ." 

"Political  utilitarianism  ....  Abstractly  ....  Ben- 
tham  ....  like  Paley  ....  regards  men  as  moved  en- 
tirely by  pleasure  and  pain  ....  but  his  purpose  was  the 
exalted  one  of  effecting  reforms  in  the  laws  and  consti- 
tution of  his  country.  He  took  up  the  greatest  happiness 
principle  not  as  an  attractive  philosopheme,  but  to  dis- 
tinguish good  laws  from  bad.  Sir  John  Bowring  tells  us 


208          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

that  when  Beuthain  was  casting  about  for  such  a  cri- 
terion, "he  met  with  Humes'  Essays  and  found  in  them 
what  he  sought.  This  was  ....  as  he  expressed  it  .... 
the  doctrine  that  the  only  test  of  goodness  of  moral 
precepts  or  legislative  enactments  is  their  tendency  to 
promote  the  greatest  possible  happiness  of  the  greatest 
number.)  These  opinions  are  developed  in  his  Princi- 
ples of  Morals  and  Legislation  (.  .  .  1789)  and  in  De- 
on-ology  (.  .  .  .  posthumously  in  1834)  ....  These  princi- 
ples of  Bentham  were  the  inspiration  of  that  most  im- 
portant school  of  practical  English  thinkers,  the  Philo- 
sophic Radicals  of  the  early  19th  Century From 

Bentham  the  leadership  passed  to  James  Mill  ....  and 
from  him  to  John  Stuart  Mill ....  His  essay  on  Utili- 
tarianism (...1863)  ....is  a  little  masterpiece  worthy 
to  be  set  beside  Kant's  Metaphisic  of  Morals  ....  Mill 
belonged  to  a  generation  in  which  the  most  remarkable 
feature  was  the  growth  of  sympathy;  he  puts  greater 
stress*  than  his  predecessor  upon  sympathetic  pleasures 
....  it  is  in  sympathy  that  he  finds  the  obligation  and 
sanction  of  morality — ^Morality'  he  says  'consists  in  con- 
scientious shrinking  from  the  violation  of  moral  rules, 
and  the  basis  of  this  conscientious  sentiment  is  the  social 
feelings  of  mankind,  the  desire  to  be  in  unity  with  our 
fellow  creatures,  which  is  already  a  powerful  principle 
in  human  nature,  and  happily  one  of  those  which  tend  to 
become  stronger  from  the  influences  of  advancing  civili- 
zation.' Such  passages  in  Mill  have  their  full  signifi- 
cance only  when  we  take  them  in  connection  with  that 
rising  tide  of  humanitarian  sentiment  which  made  itself 
felt  in  all  the  literature  and  in  all  the  practical  activity 
of  his  time.  The  other  notable  feature  of  Mill's  doctrine 
Is  his  distinction  of  value  between  pleasures  ....  It  is 
commonly  said  that  in  making  this  distinction  Mill  has 
•practically  given  up  Utilitariasm  because  he  has  applied 
to  pleasure  (alleged  to  be  the  supreme  criterion)  a  fur- 
ther criterion  which  is  not  pleasure.  But  .  .  this  . 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          209 

may  be  questioned.  .  .  .  The  merest  pleasure-lover  may 
-consistently  say  that  he  prefers  a  single  glass  of  good 
champagne  to  several  bottles  of  cooking  sherry  ....  So 
Mill  is  justified  in  preferring  a  scene  of  Shakespeare  .... 
to  a  great  mass  of  lower  pleasure.  The  last  writer  who, 
though  not  a  political  utilitarian,  may  be  regarded  as 
belonging  to  the  school  of  Mill  is  Henry  Sidgwick,  whose 
elaborate  Methods  of  Ethics  (.  .  .  .  1874)  may  be  re- 
garded as  closing  this  line  of  thought.  His  theory  of 
conduct  is  a  sort  of  reconciliation  of  utilitarianism  with 
intuitionalism,  a  position  which  he  reached  by  studying 
Mill  in  combination  with  Kant  and  Butler.  His  recon- 
ciliation amounts  to  this,  that  the  rule  of  conduct  is  to 
aim  at  universal  happiness,  but  that  we  recognize  the 
reasonableness  of  this  rule  by  an  intuition  which  cannot 
be  further  explained. 

"Even  before  the  appearance  of  Sidgewick's  book  utili- 
tarianism had  entered  upon  its  third  or  evolutional 
phase,  in  which  principles  borrowed  from  biological  sci- 
ence make  their  entrance  into  philosophy.  The  main 
doctrine  of  evolutional  or  biological  ethics  is  stated".  .  .  . 
in  the  third  chapter  of  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man  (.  .  .  . 
1871).  .  .  .  he  approached  the  subject  "exclusively  from 
the  side  of  natural  history."  Theological  and  political 
utilitarianism  alike  had  been  individualistic.  But  Dar- 
win shows  how  the  moral  sense  or  conscience  may  be  re- 
garded as  derived  from  the  social  instincs,  which  are 
common  to  men  and  animals.  To  understand  the  genesis 
of  human  morality  we  must  study  the  ways  of  sociable 
animals  such  as  horses  and  monkeys,  which  give  each 
other  assistance  in  trouble,  feel  mutual  affection  and 
sympathy,  and  experience  pleasure  in  doing  actions  that 
benefit  the  society  to  which  they  belong.  Both  in  ani- 
mals and  in  human  society  individuals  of  this  character, 
being  conducive  to  social  welfare,  are  encouraged  by 
natural  selection — they  and  their  society  tend  to  disap- 
pear and  to  destroy  the  society  to  which  they  belong. 


210          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Thus,  in  many  do  sentiments  of  love  and  mutual  sym- 
pathy become  instinctive  and,  when  transmitted  by  in- 
heritance, innate.  When  man  has  advanced  so  far  as 
to  be  sensitive  to  the  opinions  of  his  fellow-men,  their 
approbation  and  disapprobation  reinforce  the  influence 
of  natural  selection.  When  he  has  reached  the  stage 
of  reflection  there  arises  what  we  know  as  conscience. 
He  will  approve  or  disapprove  of  himself  according  as 
his  conduct  has  fulfilled  the  conditions  of  social  wel- 
fare. 'Thus  the  imperious  word  ought  seems  to  imply 
the  consciousness  of  a  persistent  instinct,  either  innate 
or  partly  acquired,  serving  as  a  guide,  tho  liable  to  be 
disobeyed. 

"The  most  famous  of  the  systematic  exponents  of 
evolutional  utilitarianism  is  in  Herbert  Spencer,  in  whose 
Data  of  Ethics  (1879).  ...  He  shows  how  morality  can 
be  viewed  .  .  .  psychologically,  as  evolving  from  a  state 
in  which  sensations  are  more  potent  than  ideas  so  that 
the  future  is  sacrificed  to  the  present  to  a  date  in  which 
ideas  are  more  potent  than  sensations  (so  that  a  greater 
but  distant  pleasure  is  prefrred  to  a  less  but  present 
pleasure) ;  sociologically  as  evolving  from  approval  of 
war  and  warlike  sentiments  to  approval  of  the  senti- 
ments appropriate  to  international  peace  and  to  an  in- 
dusarial  organization  of  society.  The  sentiment  of  ob- 
ligation Spencer  regards  as  essentially  transitory;  when 
a  man  reaches  a  condition  of  perfect  adjustment,  he 
will  always  do  what  is  right  without  any  sense  of  be- 
ing obliged  to  do  it.  The  best  feature  of  the  Data  of 
Ethics  is  its  anti-ascetic  vindication  of  pleasure  as  man's 
natural  guide  to  what  is  physiologically  healthy  and 
morally  good.  .  .  .  Following  up  the  same  line  of  thought, 
Leslie  Stephen  with  .  .  .  more  attention  to  scientific 
method  has  worked  out  in  his  Science  of  Ethics  (1882) 
the  conception  of  morality  as  a  function  of  the  Social 
organism,  while  Professor  S.  Alexander  in  his  Moral 
Order  and  Progress  (1899)  has  applied  the  principles  of 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          211 

natural  competition  and  natural  selection  to  explain  the 
struggle  of  ideals  against  each  other  within  society. 
"'Moral  Evil,"  says  Professor  Alexander,  "is  in  great  part 
a  defeated  variety  of  moral  ideal.  ...  A.  Southerland's 
Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Moral  Instinct  (.  .  .  1898)  is 
a  capable  piece  of  work  in  this  direction." 

A  year  or  two  before  his  death,  our  father  took 
us  upon  a  fishing  trip,  and  he  was  amused  when 
we  took  upon  us  by  preference  all  the  labor  of 
rowing  the  boat,  and  left  entirely  to  him  and  to 
our  guide  the  actual  catching  of  fish.  Neither 
then  nor  subsequently  were  we  able  to  find  pleas- 
ure in  killing  things.  In  regard  to  hunting  it  is 
the  same  with  us  as  in  regard  to  angling ;  we  love 
to  roam  thru  the  wild,  nor  does  a  year  pass  but  we 
make  one  or  more  camping  trips,  and  yet  the  most 
deadly  weapon  we'll  carry  is  a  camera. 

Notwithstanding  that  this  attitude  has  become 
a  matter  of  principle,  still  we're  inclined  to  wonder 
whether  fundamentally  it  mayn't  have  some  other 
origin,  the  more  potent  precisely  because  the  less 
obvious.  So  often,  our  strong  aversions  are  trace- 
able to  childhood  experiences.  Many  a  would-be 
swimmer,  his  ambition  balked  by  an  insuperable 
unwillingness  to  confide  his  body  completely  and 
lovingly  to  the  water  as  a  swimmer  must,  will  tell 
you  that  as  a  boy  he  was  thrown  into  the  middle 
of  a  deep  stream,  or  was  unmercifully  "ducked" 
by  older  boys.  So  it  may  be  that  the  surest  guar- 
antee against  cruelty  in  adulthood  (for  wanton 
game-killing  is  cruelty)  is  that  in  youth  we  should 


212  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

have  been  tragically  impressed  by  the  spectacle 
of  animals  suffering. 

The  childhood  picture  which  we  now  recall  in 
this  connection  is  nothing  of  an  extreme  character 
— like  a  bull-fight — to  excite  the  anticipations  of 
the  reader.  It  is  simply  that  of  a  small  boy  who 
stoned  a  cat  out  of  a  tree — and  then  was  struck 
by  remorse  at  sight  of  the  little  creature's 
shrunken  body. 

It  happened  at  the  rear  of  a  big  stable.  A  dog 
first  sighted  the  cat, — nosed  her  out  of  her  hiding 
— and  when  she  streaked  across  the  yard  toward 
that  tree,  he  gave  fast  and  furious  chase.  The 
small  boy  was  just  coming  around  the  corner  of 
the  stable,  dreaming  about  a  flying  machine. he 
intended  to  build,  when  this  animal  whirlwind 
flashing  past  awakened  him  to  a  sense  of  ex- 
,hilarating  realism,  and  sucked  him  along  in  its 
vortex  after  it  to  the  base  of  the  tree.  Herein 
the  cat  had  found  refuge,  and  the  baffled  dog  was 
cogitating  how  best  to  renew  the  attack,  while 
hiding  his  immediate  embarrassment  under  a 
.noisy  assumptipn  of  bragadoccio. 

We  distinctly  recollect  that  the  small  boy — the 
writer — had  a  moment  of  uncertainty  as  to  what 
course  it  would  be  ethical  for  him  to  pursue,  and 
as  to  which  contestant  he  ought  to  abet,  and  we  re- 
call that  his  decision  was  finally  rendered  upon 
the  precedent  of  the  immense  majority  of  alli- 
ances being  notoriously  between  boy  and  dog ;  and 
seldom  between  boy  and  cat.  Like  a  good  legalist, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  213 

he  no  sooner  made  sure  of  what  was  the  boys' 
international  code  on  such  matters,  than  he  hero- 
ically repressed  all  compunctions,  and  openly  en- 
tered the  field  with  shouts  and  exhortations  as  the 
avowed  ally  of  dog. 

Both  combattants  during  this  time  had  not 
failed  anxiously  to  eye  the  boy  as  a  possible  and 
deciding  participant  in  the  fray.  So,  when  it  was 
seen  which  side  he  had  chosen,  the  barking  as- 
sumed a  confident  tone,  and  the  mewing  took  on 
a  note  of  pitiful  despair.  On  the  ground,  jubila- 
tion clamored  loud;  but  in  the  tree  horror 
crouched. 

The  failure  of  the  dog's  offensive  had  been  due, 
of  course,  to  his  inadequacy  in  the  air.  So  long 
as  operations  had  been  confined  to  the  ground,  he 
had  vanquished  the  foe  completely;  but  in  the 
high  altitudes  he  was  powerless.  This  defect  his 
new  ally  was  to  remedy,  by  bringing  to  his  assist- 
ance an  artillery  fire  of  bricks  and  stones  which 
drove  pussy  into  the  topmost  branches.  At  last 
the  barrage  attained  its  effect,  and  the  unequal 
battle  ended.  An  ugly  stone  hit  the  poor  little 
creature  squarely,  and  with  a  cry  of  pain  she  tum- 
bled from  the  tree. 

The  dog  gave  a  yelp  of  triumph  and  jumped 
to  seize  his  prey.  But  the  boy  drove  him  away 
angrily.  Filled  with  no  feeling  except  deep  re- 
morse, which  had  flooded  over  him  like  a  torrent 
at  the  instant  that  he  saw  his  stone  strike  true, 
the  boy  took  his  victim  into  his  arms  and  tried 


214          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

vainly  to  nurse  her  back  to  life.  But  it  was  too 
late. 

When  the  little  body  became  quite  cold  and 
stiff,  it  was  given  a  decent  burial.  And  the  one 
mourner  who  attended  was  sincere  in  his  devo- 
tion, nor  ever  passed  that  way  again  without  ex- 
periencing sharp  remorse. 

This  experience  may  well  be  one  reason  why 
invitations  to  go  hunting  or  fishing  now  awake  in 
us  only  repulsion.  For  the  rest,  we  leave  it 
to  Dr.  Freud  and  the  psychoanalysis  to  point  out 
learnedly  the  importance  of  childhood  experiences 
in  predetermining  character. 

But  after  all,  what  anomalies  are  hunting  and 
fishing,  in  this  day  of  abattoirs  and  of  steam 
fishing-vessels !  0  sportsmen,  are  not  camping 
and  boating  in  the  free  air  and  amid  the  beauty 
of  nature  enough  delight  in  themselves,  without 
the  bloody  superfluity  of  butchery? 

The  only  rational  meter  of  the  ultimate  right 
or  wrongness  of  actions  is  that  all  goods  must 
be  measured  in  terms  of  the  amount  of  happiness 
somebody  derives  from  them.  You'll  find  reams 
of  argument  for  this  theorem  among  the  writings 
of  Utilitarians  and  Hedonists.  We  don't  imply 
that  the  common  run  of  people  actually  do,  in  a  ma- 
jority of  cases,  guide  themselves  by  this  considera- 
tion, but  merely  that  it's  the  only  rational,  sane, 
standard;  for  to  act  rationally  means  to  act  to- 
ward the  procurement  of  something  desired, 
whether  good  or  bad.  Here  are  some  typical  ob- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          215 

jects  of  desire:  food,  sleep,  money,  social  recog- 
nition, to  attain  Heaven,  to  obey  God's  command- 
ments, to  see  some  creature  suffer,  to  attain  cul- 
ture, to  down  our  enemies,  and  to  be  of  service  to 
mankind.  While  the  desire  for  food  is  a  blind 
instinct  that  seldom  stops  to  ask  "Why?"  yet  we'd 
consider  a  person  to  be  hardly  amenable  to  reason 
who  deliberately  ate  food  that  he  knew  would 
cause  a  surplus  of  crying  over  smiling.  Again, 
fatigue-toxins  may  so  drug  a  tired  person  that 
for  the  sake  of  sleep  he'll  jeopardize  his  very  life; 
but  his  action  under  such  circumstances  can't  be 
called  rational;  if  a  person  isn't  too  drowsy  to 
reason  clearly,  he  isn't  tempted  to  seek  sleep  when 
he  believes  that  by  doing  so  his  rest  will  end  in 
misery,  unless  that  misery  is  to  be  balanced  by 
more  happiness,  (e.  g.,  as  the  misery  of  struggling 
to  remain  awake  when  lost  at  night  in  a  snow- 
storm, might  be  balanced  by  the  presumed  hap- 
piness of  escaping  death  thereby) ,  but  if  a  person 
is  tempted  to  woo  sleep,  when  his  rational  powers 
are  in  abeyance  to  the  excitement  of  present  ac- 
tivity, he  realizes  that  sleep  (say  because  it  favors 
health)  will  result  ultimately  in  a  net  surplus  of 
happiness  over  any  misery  of  foregoing  present 
excitements.  The  accumulation  of  money  may 
become  a  mania  as  difficult  to  curb  as  is  the  use 
of  opium  or  hashish,  but  who,  in  dispassionate 
moments,  unblinded  by  the  glamor  of  some  glit- 
tering new  project,  who,  but  feels  in  the  depths  of 
his  heart  that  gold,  finally,  is  no  more  than  an  in- 


216  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

surance  against  the  day  of  wretchedness  and  cry- 
ing or  at  best,  is  a  means  of  having  and  giving 
smiles  ?  As  to  social  recognition,  would  it  be  half 
so  keen  but  for  the  sense  that  in  obscurity  we 
shan't  be  quite  smiling?  What's  the  meaning  of 
"Heaven"  except  that  it  be  a  place  or  state  of 
supreme  happiness?  Would  you  still  wish  to 
obey  God's  commandments  if  you  really  and  keen- 
ly felt  that  to  do  so  was  the  way  to  make  every- 
one (including  yourself  and  God  himself)  forever 
unhappy?  Would  you  seek  as  keenly  after  cul- 
ture, if  you  believed  (what  non-Teutons  represent 
to  be  the  German  conception  of  it)  that  culture 
means  for  all  mankind,  crying?  Would  you  in 
your  rational  moments  really  desire  that  a  fellow 
creature  should  suffer  punishment  merely  "be- 
cause he  so  well  deserves  it,"  unless  you  feel  that 
you  yourself  would  then  be  able  to  smile  and  crow 
over  a  fallen  foe,  or  because  God  in  His  inscrut- 
able wisdom  would  be  displeased,  i.  e.,  unhappy, 
were  it  not  so,  or  because  you  hope  the  sufferer 
may,  through  thus  suffering,  become  a  more  hap- 
piness-giving sort  of  man,  or  because  the  example 
of  his  sufferings  may  deter  others  from  following 
misery-creating  kinds  of  conduct?  In  sum,  I 
think  you  must  agree  that  when  not  enslaved  to 
appetites,  nor  drowsy,  nor  drunk  with  excitement, 
nor  a  truth-despising  fanatic,  nor  enraged,  nor 
insane,  nor  an  infant,  nor  stupid,  in  short,  when- 
ever for  a  moment  you're  truly  rational,  you  know 
that  happiness  is  the  one  thing  in  the  world  which 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  217 

in  itself  is  worth  while  and  the  one  quality  which 
gives  merit  to  articles  of  value. 

To  be  bad  means  to  be  unfavorable  in  the  long 
run  to  happiness,  whereas  to  be  good  means  to 
be  favorable  (when  all  the  ramifications  and  after- 
effects of  the  matter  have  been  counted)  to  hap- 
piness. 

Too  often  in  our  judgments  of  human  beings, 
their  character  or  actions,  the  words  "good"  and 
"bad"  are  applied  loosely  to  denote  the  general 
praiseworthiness  of  the  intentions  behind  those 
actions  and  not  the  acts  themselves.  E.  g.,  we 
call  a  woman  good  who,  in  trying  to  alleviate  the 
sufferings  of  dying  cats,  builds  a  cat-hospital  and 
prolongs  their  suffering  for  months,  or  we  call 
a  workman  "bad"  who,  by  some  striking  exem- 
plification of  the  unsatisfactoriness  of  the  kind 
of  employe  which  he  typifies,  is  the  cause  of  his 
employer's  installing  labor-saving  machinery.  It 
would  be  more  accurate  to  speak  merely  of  "a 
well-intentioned  woman"  or  an  "ill-intentioned 
man."  A  safe  hypothesis  by  which  to  guide  one's 
judgments  is  that  "only  that  is  good  which  is 
good  for  something." 

As  to  whether  the  existence  of  evil  wouldn't  be 
justified  if  it  were  shown  to  be  the  only  way 
known  to  God  for  strengthening  our  characters? 
We  answer  "No."  Except  there  were  such  evils 
to  overcome  by  means  of  evil  itself,  what  would 
be  the  use  or  advantage  of  building  up  a  strong 
character?  The  aim  of  all  things,  towards  which 


218          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

triumphs,  or  character,  or  any  other  achieve- 
ments are  but  subsidiary  means,  we  decided,  was 
Happiness.  Then  how  is  mankind  better  off  be- 
cause at  the  cost  of  much  wickedness  and  crying, 
the  balance  of  smiling  is  to  be  of  that  particular 
and  especial  variety  that  comes  through  a  strong 
character  conquering  temptations  ? 

Our  essay  thus  far  has  shown  man  as  a  crea- 
ture capable  of  the  greatest  variety  of  contradic- 
tory motives,  sometimes  sensual  or  even  whimsi- 
cal, sometimes  ambitious,  anon  idealistic,  and  in 
rare  instances  even  truly  altruistic.  It  has  fur- 
ther shown  that  the  happiest  life  pro  tern  is  that 
which  expresses  nothing  higher  (nor  lower)  that 
our  character  as  already  formed,  but  that  it  may 
pay  to  renounce  some  of  this  present  luxury  to 
achieve  higher  character  and  its  accompanying 
greater  fortitude  and  greater  bliss.  The  way  thus 
prepared  for  us  to  tell  you  frankly  both  what  you 
may  hope  for  yourself  and  what  we  ourselves 
hope,  to  profit  by  these  essays.  We  feel  that  in 
general  a  man  who  writes  a  book  or  delivers  a 
lecture  does  well  to  commence  by  summing  up  for 
his  audience  frankly,  in  a  few  words,  what  is 
his  own  point  of  view.  They  can  be  on  their  guard 
against  him.  The  writer  or  lecturer  if  he's  wise 
will  wish  this,  because  a  good  knock-down  fight 
at  the  beginning  is  more  satisfactory  to  either 
party  fhan  a  history  of  deceptions  ending  in  dis- 
illusionment and  embitterment.  So  let  us  tell  first 
how  it  is  we  came  to  write  these  essays,  and  in 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  219 

so  doing,  we'll  see  whether  our  mutual  plan  isn't 
(as  we  believe)  the  thing  to  serve  best  your  in- 
terests too. 

Frankly,  then,  we  hit  on  the  idea  of  these  es- 
says as  a  means  of  building  up  the  nucleus  of  an 
ideal  society.  It  occurred  to  us  that  certain  major 
principles  which  must  be  the  foundation  of  the 
better  social  organization  which  is  to  succeed  the 
present  one  could  be  denned  in  terms  that  would 
make  them  immediately  workable  by  individuals 
or  groups ;  and,  further,  that  through  a  course  on 
personal  problems  we  could  appeal  to  our  readers 
on  a  basis  largely  of  self  interest  to  adopt  these 
principles  and  to  join  with  groups  of  others  in 
practicing  them.  We're  always  glad  to  correspond 
on  such  matters  with  readers  of  our  books. 

Within  the  shell,  therefore,  of  the  cruel  and 
wicked  but  visibly  disintegrating  social  order  in 
which  our  lives  have  been  cast,  we  want  to  plant. 
like  seeds,  little  groups  organized  upon  the  fol- 
lowing lines: 

1.  Leaving  to  individual  judgment  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Ego's  survival  of  death,  we  condemn 
the  intrusion  into  schools  and  public  meetings  of 
exercises,  etc.,  based  on  assumptions  of  superna- 
tural powers,  a  teleological  or  moral  universe, 
etc.,  or  otherwise  designed  to  distract  to  the  prob- 
lems of  an  hypothetical  other  world  the  energies 
that  are  so  sorely  needed  for  the  problems  of  this 
present  world.  Instead  of  the  hereafter  we  em- 
phasize the  here. 


220          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

2.  Their  purpose  shall  be  to  promote  the  great- 
est happiness  of  the  greatest  number  of  mem- 
bers and  of  non-members,  contributors  and  non- 
contributors,  alike.     Hence  the  first  law  of  their 
nature  shall  be  not  self-preservation,  not  wealth 
and  respectability,  but  daily  to  dispel  ignorance 
and  suffering. 

3.  Overpopulation    of    the    world    increases 
the  bitterness  of  the  economic  struggle.    We  en- 
join upon  our  following  Adoption  and  Education, 
as  being  worthier  than  propagation,  of  children. 

4.  It  should  be  a  matter  of  conscience  that 
self-expression  should  not  assume  unwholesome 
or  vulgar  or  wasteful  forms.    Our  members  are 
pledged  to  general  abstemiousness,  and  to  non-use 
of  tobacco  and  drugs. 

5.  We  believe  in  continuous  self-education. 

6.  Full  freedom  of  expression  through  forms 
intellectual  and  artistic,  as  vital  to  human  sanity, 
is  one  of  the  purposes  of  our  organization. 

7.  We  urge  individuals  to  consider  as  para- 
mount the  rights  of  the  group,  in  questions  which 
involve  an  irreconcilable  conflict  of  liberties  of 
sensing  or  expressing,  as  for  example  where  one 
wishes  to  smoke  or  to  swear  in  a  loud  unmusical 
voice  in  a  car  in  which  are  other  persons  whose 
physical  senses35  are  irritated  thereby,  or  to  dis- 
figure a  landscape,  or  to  mingle  in  crowds  if  one's 
body  doesn't  measure  up  to  a  certain  standard  of 

36The  meaning-  of  the  swear-words  is  no  physical  but  a  mental  fact. 
It  would  be  impracticable  to  carry  this  rule  into  the  ideational  realm, 
for  the  meanings  which  any  presentation  may,  call  up  will  depend 
upon  each  perceiver's  own  associations,  hence  are  unpredictable. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          221 

healthiness.  But  we  urge  vigorous  resistance  to 
every  encroachment  of  the  group  upon  each  in- 
dividual's right  to  do  whatever  isn't  an  aggres- 
sive interference  with  the  equal  freedom  of 
others  in  sensation  or  expression.  As  for  exam- 
ple where  the  group  insist  on  him  taking  part  in 
great  emotional  mass-movements  with  their  like- 
lihood of  grand-scale  violence,  which  last  is  al- 
ways wrong.  Every  form  of  discrimination 
against  large  groups  of  races  or  color  of  skin, 
etc.,  is  essentially  contrary  to  our  spirit. 

8.  Our  members  shall  bring  their  disputes  be- 
fore our  own  tribunals  for  settlement,  and  it  shall 
be  the  rule  that  whoever  exacts  any  penalty,  even 
from  his  child,  shall  in  some  degree  humble  him- 
self or  do  a  penance  of  like  sort,  before  him,  lest 
arrogance  grow  among  us. 

9.  Self -understanding  is  the  most  fundamental 
knowledge. 

10.  As   a   rebuke  to  that   commercial   spirit 
which  has  filled  the  world  with  materialistic  dis- 
content, our  organization  will  not  in  its  offcial 
capacity  own  property.     It  will  arrange  camps 
and  other  meetings  which  members  are  enjoined 
occasionally  to  attend,  at  which  they  will  take  a 
holiday  from  the  greedy  atmosphere  of  the  pres- 
ent-day world,  share  in  common  the  labor  of  the 
camp  and  divide  among  the  needy  all  supplies 
brought  along. 

11.  Our  organization-plan  shall  be  such  as  be- 
seems our  aspiration  to  unify  all  enduringly  wor- 


222  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

thy  institutions.  The  membership  shall  be  rep- 
resented not  geographically  but  according  to  their 
industrial  or  other  affiliations.  Half  as  many  rep- 
resentatives as  members  elect  to  our  supreme 
council  may  be  chosen  by  any  persons  outside  the 
membership,  or  who  have  been  repressed  by  us, 
or  dishonored, — this  provision  is  for  a  check  to 
growth  among  us  of  snobbish  tendencies.  Half 
as  many  representatives  as  these  shall  be  chosen 
by  those  children  or  others  whom  we  have  most 
severely  disciplined;36  this  as  a  check  to  tyran- 
nous tendencies. 

Upon  the  foregoing  eleven  principles  we  are 
as  said,  founding  an  organization,  which  each  of 
our  readers  is  invited  to  join.  But  in  so  inviting 
them,  we  wish  to  appeal  on  grounds  primarily  of 
their  self-interest.  Only  if  our  organization  truly 
benefits  its  membership,  will  it  measure  up  to  its 
first  principle — to  serve  mankind.  So  next  let  us 
follow  our  exposition  of  the  plans  of  development 
of  the  association  with  an  exposition  of  plans  for 
personal  develpment  of  its  individual  adherents. 
Later  we  think  we  can  show  that  the  two  mutual- 
ly support  each  other,  principle  by  principle,  and 
step  by  step.  In  the  course  of  the  other  essays 
of  this  series,  we  shall  try  to  show : 

1.  The  pathological  types    will    be    happier 
when  they  can  become  natural. 

2.  The  merely  animal  type  will  find  his  pleas- 


Terhaps   in   the  beginnigr  no  severer  cases   will   occur  than   of  per- 
sons who  have  been  put  ou.t  of  a  rneetinpr  for  causing  disturbance. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  223 

ures  actually  heightened  to  the  degree  that  an  in- 
fusion into  him  of  the  spirit  of  ambitious  egoism 
brings  him  to  greater  abstemiousness. 

3.  The  egoist  needs  an  infusion  of  less  selfish 
aspiration,  to  prevent  him  narrowing  himself  to 
the  point  where  life  has  become  sterile.    A  warm 
heart  is  as  necessary  to  success  as  is  a  cool  head. 

4.  This  craving  becomes  satisfied  only  as  he 
continues  his  development  toward  an  efficient  al- 
truism. 

So  much  for  the  general  conception.  But  how, 
you'll  ask,  is  it  proposed  that  these  changes  should 
be  effected  ?  It's  impossible  to  effect  them  in  many 
cases  quickly.  They  must  come  as  results  of  con- 
scious growth,  and  lasting  growth  can  be  begun 
only  on  the  basis  of  reliable  scientific  knowledge. 
So  we  propose  to  devote  the  various  essays  that 
follow  this  one  to  considering  in  more  and 
more  detail  each  specific  impulse  of  the  human 
being,  and  to  show  how  in  each  case  the  elemental 
desire  may  be  stepped  up  to  a  sublimated  form  of 
expression.  We  already  have  discussed  the  pe- 
culiar doubleness  of  human  responses — "condi- 
tioned reflex,"  "bivalance,"  and  "ambitendency." 
Chapter  5  will  consider  how  we  best  can  confirm 
faint  tendencies,  exposes  the  fallacies  of  make-be- 
lieve sciences  like  phrenology,  "memory-train- 
ing," "wiH"-training,  etc.,37  and  gives  the  present 
status  of  the  doctrine  of  instincts. 

••wnjit  a  lot  of  philosophy  dating  back  to  Locke,  and  psychology  an- 
tedating James  you'll  find  in  most  of  the  popular  discussions  of  these 
subjects!  They're  permeated  by  the  dogma  of  "discipline"  for  our 
"faculties,"  which  any  normal  school  graduate  can  tell  you  is  dead. 


224  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

We've  said  that  our  aim  in  this  book  is  partly 
a  social  one.  Upon  the  foundation  of  elemental 
human  nature  colored  with  the  idea  of  restraint 
instead  of  that  of  development  has  been  reared  a 
society  little  better  than  a  brothel,  where  four 
sinister  columns,  greed,  superstition,  terrorism 
and  vainglory  become  necessary  to  support  its 
corner  institutions  of  Property,  Church  and  chari- 
ties, Penitentiary,  and  State.  But  upon  the  same 
human  nature  can't  you  see  reared  some  day  in 
place  of  this  brothel  a  fair  temple  to  Happiness, 
whose  corner  institutions  shall  be  Collectivism, 
The  Federation  of  Clubs  of  Service,  Re-education 
Homes,  and  athletic  and  Propaganda  Leagues? 
The  Ethics  we're  interested  in,  isn't  the  Ethics 
that  bolsters  the  posts  of  the  ancient  and  decaying 
brothel — why  not  let  that  rot  and  fall  away? — 
but  the  Ethics  necessary  as  foundation  for  the 
columns  of  the  new  temple  that  will  arise. 

These  essays  are  intended  to  solve  for  you  the 
greatest  puzzle  of  life — the  puzzle  of  Conduct. 
Each  of  us  has  a  tendency  toward  being  a  social 
animal,  that  desires  to  do  what  is  felt  to  be  right ; 
but  each  of  us  at  the  same  time  has  many  individ- 
ual tendencies,  that  make  him  wish  to  follow  sel- 
fish and  even  unwise  and  passionate  impulses. 
When  we  simply  make  a  compromise  between 
these  two  natures  as  we  ordinarily  do  in  life, 


methods  of  suggestion  which  are  therapeutically  questionable,  and 
terms  like  "subconscious"  (for  unconscious)  and  telepathy,  for  mut>cU>- 
reading  which  indicate  ways  of  thinking  that  have  been  superseded. 
In  our  discussion  of  the  "Will"  we  at  least  shall  not  fool  you  with 
make-believe  science. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          225 

neither  nature  is  quite  satisfied,  and  we  become 
unhappy. 

Analyses  should  be  made  in  no  cynical  spirit, 
and  with  the  idea  that  "To  understand  all  is  to 
forgive  all."  . 

That  which  in  our  association  goes  by  the  name 
of  goodness  is  not  to  be  thot  of  as  in  all  respects 
a  different  goodness  from  all  which  the  old  world 
long  has  so  regarded.  All  that  men  have  till  now 
thot  and  felt  is  not  to  be  thrown  by  the  board. 
But  those  virtues  which  we  particularly  stress,  or 
concerning  which  we  differ  from  others,  or  on 
which  our  teaching  requires  definition,  we  shall 
gradually  set  forth  in  the  ethical  code  below.  To 
practice  this  code  in  their  lives  rather  than  to 
preach  it  by  word  of  mouth  is  the  form  of  propa- 
ganda which  we  enjoin  upon  all  of  our  members; 
it  will  win  far  more  converts  to  us  than  anything 
else  we  could  do. 

Mr.  Greenbie,  the  first  teacher  at  our  school  in 
California  wrote  up  the  following  account  of  his 
experiences  on  "affection  at  Boyland." 

"When  parents  finally  consent  to  give  their 
children  into  the  care  of  strangers  they  should  be 
given  some  guarantee  that  they  will  receive  the  at- 
tention children  by  right  of  being  born  of  civilized 
parents  deserve. 

"Of  course,  were  we  still  living  in  a  natural  en- 
vironment instead  of  the  mind-born  one,  there 
would  be  no  question  of  education.  Thrown  out 
upon  our  own  resources  with  unperverted  in- 


226          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

stincts  as  our  guides,  education  would  be  neces- 
sary. But  civilization  is  at  war  with  our  in- 
stincts and  rave  against  it  much  as  Nietsche  will 
— it  is  as  much  an  instinct  with  us  to  destroy  our 
instincts  and  substitute  the  minds'  wishes  as  it  is 
to  submit  to  'stagnation.' 

"Affection  is  a  matter  of  education — it  is  lead 
out  of  us.  So  too  is  brutality.  And  naturally 
the  fond  mother  should  inquire  as  to  how  much 
affection  her  child  will  get  if  entrusted  to  the 
master.  And  she  might  use  this  barometrically. 
A  child's  education  is  proportionate  to  the  amount 
of  affection  it  receives. 

"One  of  the  loveliest  things  at  Boyland  is  the 
general  good  will  existing  among  the  boys.  This 
is  not  saying  that  they  have  no  quarrels,  no  bick- 
erings— a  more  lucid  term,  squabbles.  They  would 
be  boys  without  special  characteristics  were  that 
the  case. 

"But  more  often  it  isn't  because  of  jealousy — 
but  because  one  makes  a  nuisance  of  himself — 
that  the  trouble  begins.  'It's  so  much  quieter 

without '  they  will  say.     'Everything  goes 

better  when is  away.' 

"This,  it  must  be  seen,  is  in  reality  a  desire  to 
eliminate  those  who  make  for  quarrelsomeness. 

"On  the  other  hand,  when  grouped  about  listen- 
ing to  one  of  us  telling  them  the  lesson  in  history 
(or  other  subject  of  the  day)  very  often  the  oldest 
would  permit  one  of  the  younger  to  share  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          227 

steamer-chair  with  him,  putting  his  arm  about 
him  in  the  spirit  of  brotherliness. 

"The  majority  of  mothers  who  alone  have  been 
compelled  to  assume  all  the  responsibility  over 
their  children  generally  say  that  a  father  is  need- 
ed to  supply  the  sterner  training.  And  indeed 
as  far  as  rational  discipline  is  concerned,  the 
boys  at  Boyland  received  a  wholesome  share  of 
it.  But  undue  severity  has  been  eliminated  by 
calm  judgment. 

"Where  most  parents  make  the  mistake  is  in 
making  demands  on  their  children  the  carrying 
out  of  which  they  are  themselves  indifferent  to. 
But  our  motto  has  been  first  to  be  sure  that  that 
which  we  have  asked  the  boy  to  do  is  absolutely 
necessary  and  then  to  see  that  it  is  accomplished, 
or  else  not  making  the  demand.  This  can  be  done 
firmly  and  affectionately,  and  should  be  as  easy 
for  the  mother  as  for  the  father. 

"On  one  occasion,  little  Self-Willed  refused  to 
do  what  was  asked  of  him.  At  the  same  time  he 
threatened  to  run  home  if  I  insisted.  Calmly  and 
without  unnecessary  talking  to,  I  picked  him  up 
in  my  arms  and  made  for  the  field  of  battle.  In 
the  tussle  he  struck  me  in  the  face.  I  took  even 
this  calmly.  Upon  reaching  our  destination,  I 
set  him  on  the  ground,  gave  him  a  shovel  (the 
others  were  doing  the  same)  and  told  him  to  get 
to  it.  He  insisted  he  wouldn't  dig,  at  the  same 
time  tearing  out  shovel  after  shovel  of  dirt,  ac- 
cording to  orders.  Then  I  dismissed  the  others 


228          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

and  kept  him  to  the  task,  talking  to  him  all  the 
while,  gently,  and  pointing  out  the  need  of  effort, 
self-control,  etc.,  etc.  When  I  thot  the  lesson  long 
enough,  I  asked  him  if  he  didn't  want  to  quit.  And 
hand  in  hand,  we  made  for  home,  better  friends 
than  ever.  Up  turned  the  little  face  to  me  and 
the  lips  spoke  out:  'You're  my  daddy  now.'  I 
picked  him  up,  he  put  his  arms  about  me  and  so 
we  reached  the  cottage. 

"Time  and  again  that  same  refrain  accompanied 
by  a  kiss  gladdened  a  darker  moment.  At  other 
times,  when  I  entered  the  room  to  see  that  they 
were  well  tucked  in,  the  windows  opened,  two 
eager  little  hands  would  draw  me  close  to  two 
puckered  lips  which  kissed  me  good  night.  We 
were  their  guardians,  their  providers,  their  train- 
ers and  their  playmates. 

"One  little  youngster  came  to  me  in  a  hungry 
moment.  'I  wish  I  had  someone  to  hug,'  he  said. 
Did  I  deny  that  to  him?  Soon  we  were  sitting  on 
one  chair,  talking  reminiscently,  as  tho  we  had 
been  brothers  in  some  other  world. 

"When  coming  up  from  dinner,  one  little  fellow 
said:  'Carry  me  up  stairs,  Prince.'  The  others 
soon  made  the  same  request,  piling  pell  mell  upon 
us,  laughing  and  gurgling  in  glee.  At  another 
time,  they  would  put  their  arms  around  us,  and 
together  we  would  come  up  the  stairs  from  the 
dining  room. 

"After  having  been  naughty,  one  youngster 
came  up  to  me  with  a  book  to  show  me  something. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          229 

I  took  him  in  my  arms  and  asked  him  to  make  an 
effort  to  become  a  stronger  boy  and  assured  him 
that  we  loved  him  and  would  do  everything  to 
help  him.  'I  love  you  too,'  he  answered,  evident- 
ly much  moved  by  my  show  of  affection. 

"Someone  suggested  that  we  go  for  a  moonlight 
ride,  and  immediately,  it  spread  like  wild-fire. 
Nothing  to  do  but  go.  Then  I  decided  to  remain  to 
do  some  work,  but  they  wouldn't  hear  of  it.  Into 
the  Den  they  came,  virtually  dragging  me  out  by 
my  coat  tails.  Then  Prince,  thinking  it  was  a 
partial  show  of  affection  for  me,  and  having 
enough  to  do  to  stay  home,  went  in.  When  they 
saw  that  they  rushed  in,  clamoring  that  he  too 
come.  Nothing  would  do  but  that  we  both  come 
along.  And  a  jolly  crew  were  we." 

Kindness  to  other  human  beings  is  our  first 
duty,  because  in  them  it  begets  a  like  emotion, 
that  continues  multiplying  its  effect.  But  the 
truly  chivalrous  person  is  he  whose  love  by  no 
means  ceases  at  the  boundaries  of  the  human 
species,  but  includes  all  who  live.  One  should  en- 
deavor to  be  as  all-compassionate  as  Gautama. 

In  what  form  this  kindness  toward  animals 
should  find  its  expression  is  a  matter  for  individ- 
ual judgment. 

Kindness  doesn't  consist  in  petting  each  pass- 
ing dog.  Doubtfully  does  it  consist  in  feeding 
the  starving  birds  and  squirrels  thru  the  winter, 
since  this  in  the  end  means  a  multiplication  of 
the  number  of  these  creatures  and  so  of  the  in- 


230          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

definite  expansion  of  our  problem.  What  is 
needed  is  not  sentimentalism. 

As  regards  vivisection,  our  problem  is  compli- 
cated by  many  factors.  We  must  beware  of 
judging  that  all  animals  kept  for  experimental 
purposes  are  made  to  suffer,  because  cases  of 
cruelty  have  been  known,  or  because  of  reports 
by  all-informed  and  hysterical  crusaders.  Many 
physiologists  invariably  take  entirely  adequate 
precautions  against  the  infliction  of  pain ;  and  in- 
deed the  conditions  of  the  experiment  themselves 
as  a  rule  absolutely  require  the  administering  of 
an  anaesthetic  if  any  operation  is  to  be  performed, 
as  otherwise  the  struggles  of  the  animal  would 
defeat  the  experimenter's  aims.  Nevertheless, 
cruel  and  even  sadistic  men  do  occur  in  labora- 
tories, from  whom  creatures  should  be  protected 
in  some  way.  The  Boston  American  suggests: 

"The  first  step  to  be  taken  is  to  throw  open  to 
the  public  these  vivisection  chambers." 

This  would  of  course  need  to  be  done  in  a  way 
that  would  not  interfere  with  the  physical  free- 
dom of  the  experimentors.  Such  measurements 
at  best  undoubtedly  would  meet  with  great  oppo- 
sition from  the  hospitals,  as  many  ill-balanced 
persons  would  be  at  first  stirred  up  to  protests  in 
unwarranted  measure.  But  in  the  end  the  pub- 
lic would  find  its  poise. 

It  is  much  easier  to  slir  up  the  public  to  a  cam- 
paign against  the  real  and  supposed  cruelties  of 
by  which  the  vague  thing  called  science  benefits, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          231 

than  against  the  cruelties  by  which  they  them- 
selves profit  to  the  extent  of  having  savory  viands 
and  luxurious  skins.  Almost  everyone  nowadays, 
even  quite  outside  the  ranks  of  the  vegetarians, 
admits  that  we  are  positively  harmed  by  the 
amount  of  meat  we  consume.  If  you  are  in 
real  earnest  about  this  business  of  being  kind  to 
animals,  begin  right  now  and  at  home  to  amend 
the  suffering  of  live-stock  under  our  abominable 
slaughter  house  conditions,  by  denying  yourself 
eighty  per  cent  of  the  animal  products  you  now 
use. 

"Apropos  is  the  following  clipping  from  a  leaf- 
let circulated  by  the  American  Humane  Educa- 
tion Society,  Boston,  Mass.: 

NOT  SUDDEN  DEATH  ALONE. 

Possibilities  Liable  to  Occur  in  the  Chase  of 
Any  Wild  Animal  That  Escapes  Wounded. 

"I  got  a  long  snap-shot  on  the  stag  and  hit  the 
beast  in  the  haunch.  It  was  late  in  the  day  and 
the  wounded  animal  got  away.  Nine  days  later 
I  spied  the  big  stag.  *  *  *  * 

"Not  once  did  he  rise  or  attempt  to  feed,  but 
lay  there  restlessly,  beating  his  head  against  the 
ground.  I  knew  well  enough  what  that  meant. 
His  plaint  could  not  reach  my  ear,  but  it  reached 
my  heart.  I  put  up  the  200-yard  sight  and  killed 
him. 

"I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  body  in 
detail.  It  would  not  be  desirable.  I  will  merely 


232          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

say  that  it  was  wasted  away  and  almost  fleshless 
except  for  the  wounded  haunch,  which  was  great- 
ly swollen.  This  I  had  done  for  my  pleasure! 

"After  that  year  I  went  no  more  to  Scotland." 

In  this  little  sketch  from  "Tracks  of  a  Rolling 
Stone,"  by  Hon.  H.  J.  Coke,  we  have  volumes  of 
the  "sport  of  killing." 

The  above  is  quoted  by  the  Vegetarian,*  a  little 
paper  edited  by  Mrs.  J.  R.  Albert  in  the  hope  of 
appealing  to  the  human  conscience  not  to  destroy 
animals  for  food.  Our  meat  consumption  should 
be  reduced  to  less  than  a  quarter  of  what  it  now 
is.  That  would  benefit  ourselves  as  well  as  re- 
lieve the  victims.  But  the  human  race  is  singu- 
larly callous  to  any  humanitarian  appeal  which 
deprives  it  of  an  indulgence,  except  it  be  a  call 
to  inflict  vengeance. 

The  way  to  meet  the  outer  world,  which  after 
all  is  as  weak  and  susceptible  to  suggestion  as  we, 
is  to  meet  it  with  the  smile  of  friendship  no  mat- 
ter how  hard  we  may  have  to  fight  it.  Thus  we 
shall  win  friends  to  ourselves,  at  least  among 
those  whose  friendship  is  worth  having. 

True  happiness 

Consists  not  in  the  multitude  of  friends, 
But  in  the  worth  and  choice.    Nor  would  I  have 
Virtue  a  popular  regard  pursue: 
Let  them  be  good  that  love  me,  tho  but  few.38 
Even  children  followed  with  endearing  wile, 


*1649    Grand   Ave.,    Chicago. 

""Johnson,    Ben — Cynthias    Revels,    Act    3,    Scene    2. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          233 

And  plucked  his  gown,  to  share  the  good  man's 
smile.39 

Children  always  appreciate  friendship,  and  few 
adults  will  take  the  trouble  to  be  their  friends. 

Befriend  the  frightened  dog,  whom  cruel  youths 
have  hounded,  with  tin  cans  to  his  tail,  making 
sport  of  its  embarrassment.  Follow  not  the  priests 
of  Zoroaster,  that  otherwise  great  master,  but 
who  taught  his  magic  they  should  kill,  as  allies 
of  dark  Ahriman,  toads  and  snakes  and  all  such 
creatures  whom  unhappy  fate  endowed  with 
scales.  Follow  least  of  all  the  way  of  hunters 
moved  not  by  need  of  food  but  their  pleasure  in 
the  hunt;  to  professional  butchers  such  things 
are  best  left,  and  them  even  we  ought  not  to 
stimulate  to  more  than  necessary  slaughter,  but 
reduce  to  minimum  our  demand  for  meat,  for 
man's  own  existence  isn't  near  so  joyous  as  jus- 
tifies that  brutes  should  greatly  suffer  for  our 
race's  maintenance.  Befriend,  as  Bludda  did  the 
wounded  swan  struck  by  his  cousin's  arrow,  and 
all  other  helpless  creatures. 

Befriend  afflicted  persons.  Visit  them  whom 
sickness  has  laid  low,  in  hospitals  especially,  the 
time  goes  slowly,  callers  come  not  often — forget 
our  selfish  bashfulness,  take  a  chance  on  being 
more  than  welcome,  for  how  few  think  to  come! 
Visit  those  worse  than  sick,  the  sick  in  soul,  the 
misanthrope,  the  grouch,  the  unpleasant  and  un- 
grateful persons;  of  all  that  are  sick  on  earth 


''Goldsmith— The   Deserted    Village,      L.    183. 


234          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

none  are  sorer  afflicted,  none  more  bereft  of 
friends  than  these.  Befriend  the  unfit,  who  by 
hereditary  taint,  improper  education,  vicious 
habits,  or  the  pride-sapping  will  weakening  exper- 
ience of  a  life  of  failure,  know  only  demon  dis- 
couragement. Befriend  the  popular  man ;  he  may 
need  a  true  friend.  Above  all  go  to  the  prisons, 
seek  out  the  wretched  drags  of  our  society ;  treat 
them  as  sages,  perhaps  emotionally  unstable,  but 
schooled  in  all  the  bitterness  of  experience;  take 
your  questions  of  state  to  those  whom  the  weight 
of  society  crushes,  go  sit  at  the  feet  of  the 
humble. 


CHAPTER  III 

Sexuality,  its  aberrations,  and  its  sublimations, 
will  occupy  us  now.  Control,  restriction,  of  the 
birthrate  may  claim  consideration  as  the  third  of 
our  ethical  mandates.  The  sensualist  with  his 
erotomania  is  on  the  lowest  rung  of  the  ladder ;  we 
recall  one  night  in  a  New  York  elevated  train  a 
drunkard  who  retorted  to  the  jibes  of  the  crowd, 
"Tha's  all  right,  but  I've  got  eight  children  at 
home,  and  that's  more  than  any  of  you've  got!" 
The  entirely  normal  person  keeps  his  family  with- 
in smaller  number  largely  because  there  are  so 
many  other  outlets  for  his  energies  to  vie  with 
the  purely  sexual  channel.  The  ambitious  person 
will  prefer  to  launch  a  few  well  educated  children 
toward  careers  that  may  shed  lustre  upon  him  as 
their  parent,  than  to  spawn  his  progeny  whole- 
sale. The  altruist  sees  that  to  adopt  and  educate 
some  of  the  unfortunate  children  already  begot- 
ten into  a  world  that  doesn't  want  them  is  the 
true  virtue,  whereas  unlimited  breeding  by  the 
working  class  is  to  the  advantage  only  of  their 
masters  who  want  more  strike-breakers  and  sol- 
diers. 

SECTION  I 

Of  the  two  most  fundamental  problems  of  the 
day,  we  may  well  be  nearer  the  solution  of  the 
other — the  economic — than  of  this  one.  Indeed, 


236 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


the  economic  problem  may  well  have  to  be  set- 
tled first. 

The  accompanying  pictures  show  you  how  men 
and  women  have  to  work  in  a  country  (India) 
where  birth-rate  is  practically  unchecked.  Even 
the  filth  from  street  and  stable  is  gathered  into 
cakes  and  dried  against  the  walls  of  the  houses, 
to  serve  as  fuel. 


INDIAN  WOMEN   SPINNING 

It  is  to  the  sexual  question  to  which  we  must 
go  for  an  explanation  of  the  creation  and  sup- 
pression of  complexes. 

"Standing  out  prominently  in  the  Freudian 
System  is  that  idea  of  a  conflict  between  the 
mental  tendencies  of  the  individuals  and  the  tra- 
ditional code  of  conduct  prescribed  by  ....  So- 
ciety." This  conflict  particularly  takes  the  form 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  237 

of  the  sexual  question,  a  few  of  the  evidences  of 
which  are  as  follows: 

There  is  a  close  union  between  blood  lust  and 
sex  lust,  and  we  need  not  point  out  the  fearful 
rage  of  combative  passion  which  is  sweeping  over 
the  world  today.  This  age  is  only  parallelled  in 
that  respect  by  those  other  ages  in  the  world's 
history  when  both  sexual  and  military  passion 
swept  over  the  world.  For  example,  the  period  of 
the  Crusades.  You  will  recall  that  these  Cru- 
sades, like  our  modern  war,  is  excused  by  all  the 
parties  to  it  on  the  ground  of  a  high  ideal  to  be 
attained,  tho  it  is  significant  that  the  immediate 
precursor  of  the  Crusades  was  the  interference  by 
the  Seljukian  Turks  with  the  profitable  commerce 
in  oriental  luxuries  for  the  merchant  princes  of 
the  day. 

Almost  contemporaneously  with  the  Crusades 
was  also  a  peculiar  outburst  of  dancing  mania ;  for 
example,  in  Spain  was  originated  at  that  time 
the  famous  Tarentella  dance,  supposed  to  be  a 
cure  for  the  bite  of  the  tarantula.  Only  a  few 
years  ago  we  ourselves  witnessed  a  great  rage  for 
dancing  of  a  more  primitive  type  than  has  been 
fashionable  for  centuries.  The  type  of  music 
now  so  much  in  vogue  is  itself  closely  allied  to 
the  primitive,  particularly  the  "Jazz,"  makes  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  emotions. 

Again,  there  is  the  tremendous  increase  in  di- 
vorce, itself,  however,  only  a  symptom  of  the  fun- 
damental discontent  with  the  marriage  institu- 


238          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tion  and  symptom  of  the  resolution  not  to  be 
bound  by  it.  Our  novels  and  serious  magazine 
literature  are  constantly  permeated  by  discussions 
of  the  sex  question  in  a  way  indicative  of  the 
great  interest  taken  in  it  by  all  persons  of  the 
present  time,  and  to  these  evidences  may  be  ad- 
ded that  of  the  moving  pictures. 


DRYING   CAKES   OF   OFFAL  FOR   FUEL 

Just  recently  in  the  New  York  Times  maga- 
zine1 we  read  of  the  meeting  of  the  Women's  Free- 
dom Congress,  in  which  the  addresses  of  Fola 
La  Follette,  Signe  Toksvig,  Anna  Strunsky  Wall- 
ing, and  others  all  showed  the  radical  tendency  of 
the  times. 

Nor  is  it  difficult  to  account  upon  many  scores 
for  this  wave  of  public  tendency.  In  the  first 

JMarch   30,    1919. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          239 

place,  it  is  a  natural  thing  in  the  human  race 
to  surge  from  one  extreme  of  a  passionate  feeling 
to  another,  alternating  between  the  pleasure  mo- 
tive and  the  ascetic  ideal.  The  tendency  of  pres- 
ent age,  from  this  point  of  view,  is  really  a  flow- 
ing back  from  the  other  extreme  of  puritanism. 

Again,  the  amusements  which  are  offered  to  us 
are  nearly  all  of  a  type  to  increase  the  already 
great  hyper-excitability  of  the  race.  People  are 
no  longer  content  to  remain  quietly  at  home  or 
calling  upon  their  friends,  or  sitting  on  their  front 
verandahs  in  the  evening  discussing  serious  or 
frivolous  questions,  but  instead  someone  imme- 
diately suggests  that  the  unoccupied  moments 
should  be  utilized  for  seeing,  let  us  say,  the  new- 
est comic  opera.  The  comic  opera,  the  typical 
play  of  our  times,  has  as  its  motive  essentially 
the  play  of  sexuality,  treated  nearly  always  in 
light  and  frivolous  fashion. 

The  older  morality  of  sex  was  determined  by 
the  conception  of  property,  woman  being  in  the 
old  regime  more  or  less  of  a  chattel.  The  newer 
conception  is  one  which  places  both  sexes  on  a 
basis  of  equality  and  denies  to  neither  of  them 
his  or  her  individuality.  And  the  institution  of 
marriage  must,  therefore,  become  based  not  upon 
any  forcible  legal  restraints  as  in  the  past,  but 
only  upon  the  consideration  of  the  well-being  and 
happiness  of  all  its  members. 

"That  a  man  or  woman,  the  units  of  society, 
should  violate  the  divine  in  themselves  for  the 


240          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

sake  of  society  is  absurd.  They  are  merely  set- 
ting an  example  to  their  children  to  do  the  same 
thing,  which  means  that  society  in  that  respect 
will  never  get  any  better."2 

Certain  philosophers  whom  we  shall  discuss  in 
Chapter  10,  made  of  man  essentially  an  animal 
driven  by  the  urge  of  the  belly,  "A  pig  philosophy" 
it  was  called  by  Carlisle,  with  a  petulance  which 
betrayed  him  as  more  sentimentalist  than  logi- 
cian. These  psychoanalysts  whom  we  shall  now 
discuss  with  you — a  very  modern  school — regard 
man  as  essentially  driven  by  the  urge  of  sex. 

Josef  Breuer,  a  Vienna  physician,  in  1880  dis- 
covered "that  the  symptoms  of  hysterical  patients 
depend  upon  impressive  but  forgotten  scenes  in 
their  lives  (traumata).  The  thereapy  founded 
thereon  was  to  cause  the  patients  to  recall  and 
reproduce  these  experiences  under  hypnosis  (ca- 
tharsis), and  the  fragmentary  theory,  deduced 
from  it  was  that  these  symptoms  corresponded  to 
an  abnormal  use  of  undischarged  sums  of  excite- 
ment (conversion) Breuer al- 
lowed the  carthartic  treatment  to  rest  ....  and 
only  resumed  it  after"  (his  pupil,  Dr.  Freud) 
"caused  him  to  do  so,  on  (the  latter's)  return  from 
Charcot.8 

Breuer's  famous  case  was  that  of  a  girl  with 
paralyzed  arm.  Under  hypnosis  she  eventually 
recalled  a  scene  where  she  had  fallen  asleep  with 
her  arm  hanging  over  the  foot  of  the  bed  of  her 

"Alison   Pair  in   Winston   Churchill's   The  Inside  of   the   Cup. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          241 

invalid  father.  At  this  time  her  attendance  on 
her  father  was  shutting  her  off  from  the  court- 
ship of  a  beau.  Awakening  in  excitement,  with 
dreams  in  which  snakes  were  conspicuous,  she 
found  the  stopping  of  circulation  in  her  arm  had 
"put  it  to  sleep"  and  she  thought  it  paralyzed. 
The  discovery  of  this  origin  of  the  symptom  re- 
sulted in  its  automatic  disappearance. 

"Breuer  ....  must  have  discovered  the  sexual 
motivity so  that  here,  as  tho  hit  by  'an  un- 
toward event'  he  broke  off  the  investigation."* 
His  unconscious  rebelled  at  the  evidences  that  the 
"undischarged  sums  of  excitement"  were  invari- 
ably sexual. 

Freud  says,  "one  day  I  was  accompanying 
Breuer when  a  man  came  up  urgently  desir- 
ing to  speak when  Breuer  was  free 

he  told  me  this  was  the  husband  of  a  patient. 
He  ended  .  .  . — 'those  are  always  secrets  of  the 
alcove'  ('secrets  of  the  conjugal  bed') 

"Later,  ....  Charcot was  just  relating 

to  Brouardel  ....  'C'est  toujours  la  chose  genital 
— toujours — toujours — toujours.'5 

"Chrobak  .  .  .  asked  me  to  take  a  patient  .  .  . 
she  was  suffering  from  senseless  attacks  of  anx- 
iety, which  could  only  be  alleviated  by  the  most 
exact  information  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  her 
physician  at  any  time  in  the  day.  When  Chrobak 
appeared,  he  took  me  aside  and  disclosed  the  fact 


4Idem.  p.  5. 
5Idem,  p.   7. 


242          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

that  the  patient's  anxiety  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  tho  she  had  been  married  eighteen  years, 
she  was  still  a  virgo.  intacta  .  .  .  "6  with  a  cynical 
prescription  as  the  only  cure. 

As  Freud  now  developed  his  own  conclusions, 
"an  acquisition  of  the  psychoanalytic  work,  won 

by  legitimate  means,  as extract  from  very 

numerous  experiences  ....  is  the  theory  of  in- 
fantile sexuality.  'The  seeker  often  found  more 
than  he  bargained  for.'  He  was  tempted  always 
further  back  ....  hoped  to  be  permitted  to  tarry 
.  .  ."  (But)  "the  tracks  led  still  further  back  into 
childhood  .  .  .  And  now  the  whole  sexual  life  of 
the  child  made  its  appearance 

"Abraham  .  .  .  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that 
just  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  child's  sexual  con- 
stitution enables  it  to  provoke  sexual  experiences 
of  a  peculiar  kind,  that  is  to  say  traumas.7 

In  "1902  a  number  of  young  doctors  crowded 
around"  Freud  "to  learn  psychoanalysis,  to  prac- 
tice it,  and  to  spread  it.8 

"Ellis  .  .  .  wrote,  in  1911  ...  'Freud's  psy- 
choanalysis is  now  championed  and  carried  out, 
not  only  in  Australia  and  in  Switzerland,  but  in 
the  United  States,  in  England,  India,  Canada.'9 

.  . .  "Even  in  prudish  America  one  could,  ...  in 
academic  circles,  .  .  .  treat  scientifically  all  those 
things  that  are  regarded  as  offensive."10 


6Idem,   pp.    8,    9. 
'Idem,   p.    11. 
"Idem,  p.  17. 
"Idem,   p.    22. 
10Idem,   p.   23. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          243 

Just  as  we  have  seen  James,  Thorndike,  Mc- 
Dougal  and  others  postulating  a  multitude  of  in- 
stincts of  slightly  ^related  character,  so  Freud  on 
the  other  hand  has  his  own  hierachy  of  human 
motives,  but  all  of  an  essentially  sexual  nature. 
Thus  he  has  as  his  primal  pair  normal  active  and 
passive  (masculine  and  feminine)  erotic  desire; 
next  come  sadism  (pleasure  in  inflicting  pain)  es- 
pecially upon  the  opposite  sex  and  masochism 
(pleasure  in  being  subjected  to  pain,  especially 
by  one  of  opposite  sex)  and  thirdly  we  have  ex- 
hibitionism (love  of  displaying  one's  self)  and 
curiosity  (originating  in  curiosity  about  sex). 
From  these  six  impulses  Freud  derives  all  others. 

Some  good  illustration  of  "exhibitionism"  and 
its  withdrawal  we  may  get11 

"From  an  article  in  the  Pedagogic  Seminary, 
by  G.  Stanley  Hall  and  Theodate  L.  Smith. 

"The  following  records  of  the  conduct  of  chil- 
dren showing  off  before  strangers,  and  also  the 
cases  of  several  older  persons: 

1,  male,  four  years  old.    Being  watched  at  his 
play,  would  run  as  fast  as  he  could,  and  fall  down. 

2,  male,  seven  years  old.     When  watched  at 
play,  began  to  hammer  the  fence.  "See!  I  am 
moving  this  fence." 

3,  male,  five  years  old.     First  pants.     Walked 
around;  then  began  to  kick,  laugh,  lie  down,  roll 
over,  etc. 

4,  female,  five  years  old.    New  hat.    Sits  down. 


"McKeever,    Psychology   and   Higher   Life. 


244          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Holds  the  head  first  on  one  side,  then  on  the  other ; 
.  .  .  will  get  a  book,  stand  on  a  chair,  "speak 
pieces,"  etc.  Soon  as  people  leave,  she  acts  nat- 
ural. 

5,  female,  seven  years  old.    Likes  to  say  things 
to  make  people  laugh.    Says  whatever  she  thinks 
of  first,  whether  good  or  bad. 

6,  female,  fourteen  years  old.    Voice  unnatural 
and  her  words  do  not  sound  like  English  when  a 
certain  boy  friend  is  near.    Sometimes  the  affec- 
tion continues  after  he  is  gone. 

7,  female,  two  years  old.     Turned  somersaults 
when  calling. 

8,  female,  seven  years  old.     Thinking  herself 
watched  tried  to  walk  in  a  fine  way. 

9,  two  boys,  aged  eight  and  six  years,  playing 
"dares."  The  older  one  dared  the  younger  one  to 
put  his  foot  on  a  chopping-block,  which  the  latter 
did,  and  had  his  foot  cut  off:  at  the  ankle. 

10,  male,  thirteen  years  old.  Servant.  Company 
being  present,  let  the  pie  slide  off  the  plate  on 
some  one's  dress. 

13,  female,  five  years  old.    Very  bashful  before 
strangers.    Face  grows  red,  and  she  says  the  op- 
posite of  what  she  means. 

14,  male,  fourteen  years  old.    Much  trouble  with 
what  was  called  "swallowers"  if  he  sat  in  com- 
pany. 

15,  female,  sixteen  years  old.    Face  would  flush 
and  heart  palpitate  if  spoken  to  by  a  stranger. 

16,  male,  seventeen  years  old.     Good  speaker. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          245 

Feels  flush  and  faint  when  he  faces  an  audience. 
Every  nerve  seems  to  twitch. 

17,  female,  adult.     Often  addresses  meetings, 
and  presides  with  great  dignity.    Says  it  is  a  great 
trial. 

18,  male,  nineteen  years  old.    When  talking  to 
a  young  lady,  turns  bright  red,  stammers,  smiles, 
.  .  .  and  finally  bolts." 

The  Libido  is  used  by  Dr.  Freud  in  its  ancient 
significance  of  an  almost  purely  sexual  aggre- 
gate of  energy.  Carl  Jung,  however,  modifies  this 
somewhat  and  means  by  the  term  simply  the  sum 
of  all  our  tendencies.  In  infancy  the  whole  course 
of  the  libido  fixes  itself  upon  the  functions  of  the 
body,  not  only  the  alimentive  actions  in  them- 
selves, but  those  closely  allied  to  them,  such  as 
sucking  a  finger,  etc.,  and  even  the  exeretory 
functions  become  to  the  small  child  a  source  of 
incredible  pleasure.  Indeed,  in  later  life,  many 
tendencies,  both  neurotic  and  normal,  are  to  be 
traced  back  to  their  origin  and  development  from 
these  earliest  pleasures.  As  the  child  grows  older, 
he  changes  somewhat  the  nature  of  his  cravings, 
but  still  fixates  for  a  long  time  upon  himself,  and 
it  is  rather  the  continuation  beyond  its  normal 
period  than  anything  else  which  is  pathological 
in  for  example,  masturbation.  The  next  stage  af- 
ter this,  which  we  may  call  subjective,  is  the  stage 
known  technically  as  narcistic.  The  name  comes 
from  that  of  a  Greek  boy  who  was  so  engrossed 
with  the  beauty  of  his  own  form  that  he  could 


246          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

not  fall  in  love  with  the  beautiful  nymph  who 
was  pining  away  for  him,  and  as  a  punishment 
he  was  condemned  to  become  the  flower  narcissus, 
which  grows  beside  of  a  pool  and  lives  forever 
upon  its  own  beautiful  reflection  in  the  waters. 
As  this  indicates,  the  narcisistic  stage  is  that  in 
which  the  individual  is  all  engrossed  in  admiring 
and  idealizing  his  own  body,  or  perhaps  we  may 
add  thereto,  his  own  superlative  characteristics. 
Finally  we  come  to  the  objective  stage  of  develop- 
ment, in  which  the  libido  finally  turns  outward  and 
fixates  upon  some  person  in  the  outside  world, 
normally  upon  someone  of  the  opposite  sex.  In 
childhood,  of  course,  the  most  available  persons 
are  the  child's  own  parents,  and  to  a  lesser  ex- 
tent, its  brothers  and  sisters,  and  as  the  tendency 
is  still  inclined  to  manifest  itself  most  toward 
the  different  sex,  we  have  the  boy  in  love  with 
his  mother,  and  the  girl  with  her  father,  a  fav- 
oritism which  is  generally  reciprocated  by  the 
parent  him  or  herself.  This  situation  gives  rise, 
of  course,  to  the  jealousy  of  the  parent  of  like  sex 
to  that  of  the  child  himself.  The  boy  is  jealous 
of  his  father  and  the  girl  of  her  mother,  because 
the  boy  wishes  to  possess  the  mother  all  to  him- 
self, etc. 

These  desires  often  are  expressed  by  the  child 
in  naive  frankness,  as  when  the  little  girl  asks 
"Daddy,  when  mummie  does,  will  you  marry  me  ?" 
But  soon  more  complex  motives  come  into  play 
and  there  ensues  embarrassment  and  repression. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          247 

But  these  childhood  desires  still  live  on  in  the  un- 
conscious, and  later  in  life  may  force  the  adult 
into  actions  which  afford  them  a  sort  of  symboli- 
cal expression  and  satisfaction,  tho  the  individual 
himself  is  forced  to  invent  other  explanations  of 
his  conduct.  It  is  as  when  one  is  given  an  hypno- 
tic sleep  a  command  to  be  carried  out  after  awak- 
ening. Duly  he  executes  the  command ;  but  when 
you  ask  him  why?  his  mind  ignoring  the  true 
reason  hurriedly  furnishes  a  pretext  which  might 
make  such  an  action  seem  rational  and  normal. 

Freud's  hypothesis  of  incest  phantasy  is  based 
upon  his  conception  of  infantile  sexuality,  which 
we  have  perhaps  sufficiently  referred  to  under  the 
last  question,  together  with  the  changes  in  the 
object  of  the  libido.  You  will  recall  the  illustra- 
tions of  incest  phantasy  in  the  myths  of  Oedipus 
and  Jocasta.  You  will  also  recall  how  perpetual 
a  theme  in  ancient  mythology  was  the  myth  of  the 
betrayal  by  treachery  and  subsequent  resurrec- 
tion from  death  of  a  racial  hero  come  to  redeem 
the  world.  This  occurs  in  the  myths  of  even  the 
most  primitive  people  in  the  stories  of  the  swal- 
lowing of  nightfall  of  the  sun,  his  subsequent  bat- 
tle with  and  escape  from  the  great  dragon  or  fish 
that  swallows  him,  and  his  liberation  and  reap- 
pearance in  the  morning  as  a  glorious  new  ris- 
ing sun.  Among  the  Babylonians,  it  was  the 
fish-god  Oanes  who  thus  typified  our  wish  to  be 
reabsorbed  by  the  mother  that  is  by  death  other- 
wise symbolised  by  the  ocean  and  to  be  reborn 


248          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

again  to  the  paradise  of  infantile  irresponsibility 
and  omnipotence.  Among  the  Egyptians,  it  was 
Osiris  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  his  enemy  Set 
resurrected  through  the  loving  devotion  and  mag- 
ic arts  of  his  sister-wife  Isis  and  re-born  as  the 
rising  sun  Horus.  Among  the  Hebrews  the  story 
is  found  in  the  adventures  of  Jonah  swallowed  by 
the  whale,  carried  under  the  sea,  and  spewed  forth 
to  carry  on  his  missionary  task  among  the  wicked 
cities  of  Asia  Minor.  Of  course  the  theme  is 
most  familiar  of  all  to  us  in  the  story  of  Jesus 
betrayed  by  the  kiss  of  Judas,  and  risen  to  immor- 
tal life  from  the  tomb.  Our  rite  of  baptism  again 
symbolizes  drowning  and,  re-birth  to  the  \new 
life. 

The  most  typical  thing  in  all  Freud's  philoso- 
phy, is  the  importance  which  he  places  on  the 
incest  phantasy.  We  speak  first  of  the  role  which 
the  father  plays.  As  this  role  seems  to  be  a 
more  important  one  as  far  as  neurosis  is  con- 
cerned than  the  mother.  The  two  roles  are  to  be 
distinguished  in  this  fashion  taking  typical  cases 
of  course,  that  the  father  as  a  rule  governs  thru 
fear  and  the  mother  thru  sympathy.  The  off- 
spring become  attached  to  one  or  the  other  of 
the  parents  in  the  majority  of  cases  according  to 
their  own  sex  the  daughter  being  generally  fond- 
est of  the  father,  the  son  of  the  mother,  etc.,  and 
there  prevails  on  the  contrary  an  antagonism  be- 
tween the  son  and  father,  daughter  and  mother. 
However,  Freud  uses  the  term  sexuality  in  a  very 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          249 

broad  sense  and  recognizes  in  each  individual  a 
large  homeosexual  component;  so,  as  we  mention 
in  the  beginning  of  this  paper  he  bases  friendship 
between  members  of  the  same  sex  upon  the  at- 
traction of  the  homosexual  element  in  the  one 
individual  for  the  corresponding  component  in  the 
other. 

It  will  be  pertinent  to  this  Chapter  if  we  here 
continue  with  Jung  (pp.  321-327),  giving  as  an 
illustration  of  unconscious  processes  his  case  of 
a  servant  who  suddenly  began  to  deck  herself 
out  in  bizarre  fashion,  had  her  teeth  extracted, 
and  then  accused  herself  of  an  heinous  sin  in  hav- 
ing done  these  things.  On  analysis  it  appeared 
that  a  love-affair  just  grown  serious  had  revived 
in  her  the  memories  of  a  previous  affair  of  like 
kind  but  which  had  terminated  disastrously,  leav- 
ing her  with  a  child.  To  be  sure  of  her  present 
lover's  affection  before  she  should  tell  him  the 
secret,  she  decked  herself  out  in  a  fashion  which 
she  thot  attractive.  Nor  was  she  the  first  per- 
son to  have  her  teeth  extracted  out  of  pure 
vanity. 

The  nervous  reaction  after  such  an  operation 
makes  everything  more  difficult  to  bear,  there- 
fore then  came  the  first  anxiety  attack.  Still 
the  patient  sought  to  guard  her  secret  and  so 
"shifted  the  fear  in  her  guilty  conscience  on  to  the 
extraction  of  the  teeth," — a  common  method,  "for 
when  we  dare  not  acknowledge  some  great  sin, 


250          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

we  deplore  some  small  sin  with  the  greater  em- 
phasis." 

"The  problem  seemed  insoluble  to  the  weak  and 
sensitive  mind  of  the  patient,  hence  the  effect  be- 
came insurmountably  great;  this  is  the  mental 
desire  as  presented  from  the  psychological  side. 
The  series  of  apparently  meaningless  events,"  and 
the  delusions,  have  now  a  meaning.  The  patient 
is  a  "person  like  ourselves,  beset  by  universal 
human  problems."  Thus  we  see  in  mental  dis- 
ease "an  unusual  reaction  to  emotional  problems 
which  are  in  no  wise  foreign  to  ourselves,"  and 
that  "the  delusion  discloses  the  psychological  sys- 
tem on  which  it  is  based." 

This  conception  is  so  enormously  significant  be- 
cause it  "forces  us  into  the  innermost  depths  of 
the  most  common  and  least  understood  of  mental 
disorders,"  the  extreme  of  madness. 

A  more  complicated  case  was  that  of  a  man 
between  thirty  and  forty  years  of  age,  a  foreign 
archaeologist,  "a  precocious  boy  of  rare  gifts. 
Physically  he  was  small,  always  weakly,  and  a 
stammerer.  He  ...  studied  ...  at  B ...  He  be- 
come absorbed  in  his  archaeological  study  so  that 
soon  he  ...  led  the  life  of  a  hermit  devoted  en- 
tirely to  science.  A  few  years  later,  on  a  holiday 

tour,  he  revisited  B ...  He  walked  a  good 

deal  in  the  environs  of  the  town.  His  few  acquain- 
tances now  found  him  somewhat  strange,  taci- 
turn, and  nervous. ...  He  then  remarked  that  he 
must  get  himself  hypnotised,  he  felt  his  nerves 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          251 

unsteady."  After  an  illness — inflammation  of  the 
lungs, — a  state  of  excitement  set  in,  which  led  to 
suicidal  ideas.  For  weeks  he  was  in  the  asylum 
in  an  extremely  excited  state.  Completely  de- 
ranged, not  knowing  where  he  was,  he  uttered 
broken  sentences  no  one  could  understand.  Often 
it  took  several  attendants  to  hold  him  when  he 
became  aggressive.  Gradually  he  became  quieter, 
at  length  "came  to  himself,  as  if  waking  out  of 
a  long  confused  dream."  His  health  regained,  he 
was  discharged  as  completely  cured.  He  returned 
home,  took  up  his  work,  published  several  re- 
markable books,  and  living  a  hermit-like  exis- 
tence, gradually  became  lost  to  all  meaning  of 
the  beauty  of  life.  After  a  few  years  a  brief 

holiday  again  brought  him  to  B ,  and  he  soon 

resumed  his  solitary  walks  in  the  environs.  "One 
day  he  was  suddenly  overcome  by  a  faint  feeling, 
and  lay  down  in  the  street.  Carried  to  a  neigh- 
boring house,  "he  immediately  became  extremely 
excited.  He  began  to  perform  gymnastics, 
jumped  over  the  rails  of  the  bed,  turned  somer- 
saults, in  the  room,  began  to  declaim  in  a  loud 
voice,  sang  his  own  improvisations,  etc."  Again 
at  the  asylum,  the  excitement  continued.  "He  ex- 
tolled his  wonderful  muscles,  his  beautiful  figure, 
his  enormous  strength.'  He  thot  himself  a  great 
singer,  a  marvelous  reciter,  an  inspired  poet  and 
composer. 

The  contrast  of  his  ideas  with  reality  was  strik- 
ing.   "He  is  a  small,  weakly  man  of  unimposing 


252          PHILOSOPHY  OP  HELPFULNESS 

build,  with  poorly  developed  muscles  betraying  at 
a  first  glance  the  atrophying  effect  of  his  studious 
life."  Unmusical,  with  a  weak  voice,  he  sings 
out  of  tune,  and  is  a  bad  speaker  because  of  his 
stammer.  "For  weeks  he  occupied  himself  in  the 
asylum  with  peculiar  jumping,  and  contortions  of 
the  body  which  he  called  gymnastics,"  then  be- 
came more  quiet  and  dreamy,  now  and  then  sing- 
ing a  love  song,  and  gradually  becoming  accessible 
for  lengthy  conversations. 

To  sum  up: 

...  A  typical  case  of  dementia  preacox,  of  the 
katatonic  variety,  specially  characterized  by  pe- 
culiar movements  and  actions."  Present  views 
in  psychiatry  would  regard  this  as  "localised  cel- 
lular disease  in  some  part  of  the  cortex,  exhibit- 
ing confusional  states,  delusions  of  grandeur,  pe- 
culiar contortions  of  the  muscles,  or  twilight- 
states,  which  taken  all  together  have  as  little  psy- 
chological meaning  as  the  bizarre  shapes  of  a 
drop  of  lead  thrown  into  water." 

The  above  is  not  Jung's  view.  "It  was  certainly 
no  accidental  freak  of  brain-cells  that  created  the 
dramatic  contrasts  shown  in  the  second  illness." 
heels  from  the  ceiling  were  awakening  in  hun- 
These  contrasts  "were  very  subtly  determined  by 
the  deficiencies  in  the  patient's  personality," — de- 
ficiencies we  would  all  regard  seriously  in  our- 
selves. The  latent  desire  to  find  compensation  for 
the  austerities  of  his  studious  life  in  the  joys  of 
poetry  and  music  and  love,  the  ambition  of  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          253 

stammerer  who  would  emulate  Demosthenes, — 
were  not  these  the  sources  of  the  patient's  delu- 
sions ?  The  naturalness  of  the  explanation  is  sig- 
nificant. 

"When  our  patient  was  a  student  he  learned 
to  know  and  love  a  girl-student.  Together  they 
made  many  excursions  in  the  environs  of  the 
town."  His  timidity  and  bashfulness, — charac- 
teristic of  a  stammerer, — and  his  poverty  never 
permitted  him  to  declare  his  love.  They  both 
went  away  at  the  termination  of  their  studies, 
and  he  never  saw  her  again.  Not  long  afterwards 
he  heard  she  was  married. 

He  buried  himself  in  his  studies,  "not  to  forget, 
but  to  work  for  her  in  his  thoughts,"  keeping  his 
love  quite  secret,  and  never  letting  her  or  any 
one  else  know  of  it.  Once  he  traveled  through  the 
town  where  she  lived,  and  from  the  train  "saw 
standing  in  the  distance  a  young  woman  with  a 
little  child,  and  thought  it  was  she.  ...  He  does 
not  think  he  felt  any  peculiar  feeling  at  that 
moment;  anyway  .  .  .  the  unconscious  wanted  to 
be  left  in  peace  with  its  illusion.  Shortly  after- 
wards he  came  again  to  B — .  What  was  going 
on  in  him?" 

The  patient's  answer  is  that,  upon  falling  ill, 
he  "lost  the  well-regulated  world  and  found  him- 
self in  the  chaos  of  an  overmastering  dream,  a 
sea  of  blood  and  fire.  .  .  .  Everywhere  conflagra- 
tion, volcanic  outbreaks,  earthquakes,  mountains 
fell  in,  followed  by  enormous  battles  where  the 


254          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

peoples  fell  upon  one  another.  .  .  .  He  was  right  in 
the  midst  of  those  fighting,  wrestling,  defending 
himself,  enduring  unutterable  misery  and  pain ; 
gradually  he  was  exalted  and  strengthened  by  a 
strange  calming  feeling  that  some  one  was  watch- 
ing his  struggles,  that  his  loved  one  saw  all  from 
afar.  That  was  the  time  when  he  showed  real 
violence  to  the  attendants.  ...  He  saw  himself  at 
the  head  of  great  armies  which  he  would  lead  to 
victory.  .  .  .  He  would  try  to  get  his  loved  one  as 
prize  of  victory.  As  he  drew  near  her  the  ill- 
ness ceased,  and  he  woke  from  a  long  dream." 

"His  daily  life  again  began  to  follow  the  regular 
routine.  ...  A  few  years  later  he  was  again  at 
B — .  .  .  .  Again  he  followed  the  old  trail  and  again 
was  overcome  by  memories.  But  this  time  he  was 
not  immersed  in  the  depths  of  confusion.  He  re- 
mained orientated  and  en  rapport  with  his  sur- 
roundings. The  struggle  was  considerably  milder, 
but  he  did  gymnastics,  practiced  the  arts,  and 
made  good  his  deficiences ;  then  followed  the  dream 
stage  with  the  love-scenes,  corresponding  to  the 
period  of  victory  in  the  first  psychosis.  In  this 
state,  according  to  his  own  words,  he  had  a  dream- 
like feeling  as  if  he  stood  upon  the  borders  of  two 
worlds  and  knew  not  whether  truth  stood  on  the 
right  or  on  the  left.  He  told  Jung,  'It  is  said  she 
is  married,  but  I  believe  she  is  not,  but  is  still 
waiting  for  me.  ...  It  is  ever  to  me  as  if  she 
were  not  married.' ' 

"Our  patient  here  portrayed  but  a  pale  copy 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          255 

of  the  scene  in  the  first  attack  of  psychosis,  when 
he,  the  victor,  stood  before  his  mistress."  In  a 
few  weeks  his  scientific  interests  again  began  to 
dominate,  he  repressed  his  intimate  life  more  and 
more,  and  "finally  turned  from  it  as  if  it  did  not 
belong  to  himself.  .  .  .  There  remained  nothing 
but  a  certain  tense  expression,  and  a  look  which, 
though  fixed  on  the  outer  world,  was  turned  in- 
wards at  the  same  time;  and  this  alone  hinted  at 
the  silent  activity  of  the  unconscious,  preparing 
new  solutions  for  his  insoluble  problem.  This  is 
the  so-called  cure  in  dementia  preacox." 

Following  our  custom,  we  shall  now  discuss  a 
type  of  utilization  of  the  motive  which  altho  it  is 
a  sublimation  of  crude  passion,  yet  doesn't  appeal 
to  us  to  be  the  desirable  kind  of  sublimation.  In 
chapter  10  we  give  what  might  well  occupy  this 
section,  namely  a  discussion  of  how  sex  is  stimu- 
lated into  abnormal  lust  by  present-day  civiliza- 
tion. As  that  theme  is,  however,  trite  we  confine 
ourselves  here  to  a  few  words  on  sexuality  in 
religion. 

It  was  in  the  town  of  Colombo,  Ceylon,  that 
the  writer  first  (Dec.  19,  1915),  came  across  a 
Hindu  temple,  which  he  inspected  and  found  in- 
teresting. It  was  unimportant.  Within  were  a 
few  of  the  gods  of  the  Hindu  pantheon,  chief  be- 
ing he  of  the  elephant  head  (ganesh).  The  tem- 
ple was  set  in  a  small  grove  of  cocoanut  trees, 
and  a  heap  of  the  nuts  stood  by.  The  next  day 
our  train  enroute  for  Kandy  passed  a  number  of 


256 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


such,  ensconced  in  the  jungle.  In  these  temples 
one  finds  pictured  biographies  of  the  gods,  large- 
ly turning  upon  erotic  themes. 

We  crossed  to  India  proper  by  what's  known 
as  "Adam's  Bridge."     One  day  the  gods  had  a 


TEMPLE  IN  A  GROVE  IN  CEYLON 

big  fight  down  in  Ceylon,  and  when  the  defeated 
parties  ran  away,  they  dropped  into  the  water 
niany  large  stones  which  they  carried  for  missiles. 
These  form  a  chain  of  small  islands  from  Ceylon 
to  the  mainland,  so  close  that  the  railroad  is  only 
broken  at  one  point.  This  fight  was  the  one  in 
which  the  monkey-god  Hanuman  came  to  the  as- 
sistance of  Rama,  a  story  whereby  the  Hindus 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          257 

explain  the  totemism  that  allows  monkeys  to  in- 
fest even  their  temple  unharmed. 

We  arrived  in  Madura  Dec.  15,  1915,  and  went 
to  see  the  most  wonderful  pagan  temple  in  the 
world.  Its  dark  galleries  and  open  courts  covered 
twenty-five  acres  of  ground.  From  the  moment 
we  entered,  we  were  stunned  by  the  sheer  awe- 
fulness  of  it.  It  was  as  tho  we  had  been  plunged 
back  twenty-five  centuries  into  the  days  of  Nine- 
vah  and  Babylon,  and  the  sight  of  us  white  per- 
sons seemed  as  strange  to  those  half -clad  leering 
throngs  of  human  beings  that  encircled  us  as  it 
would  have  been  to  the  ghosts  of  those  ancient 
races.  Altho  we  entered  the  temple  at  5  p.  m. 
(early  in  this  climate),  its  endless  corridors  were 
often  quite  dark,  and  the  bats  that  hung  by  their 
dreds,  and  filling  the  echoing  chambers  with  a 
weird  whimpering  and  squeaking.  The  roof  was 
supported  by  grotesquely  sculptured  monolithic 
columns,  each  representing  some  legend  of  a  god. 
Many  of  the  shrines  we  weren't  allowed  to  enter ; 
but  other  times  we  came  upon  monstrous  idols, 
odorously  greasy  from  the  melted  butter  sacrificed 
to  them. 

One  gets  some  idea  of  the  size  of  this  temple 
by  looking  out  over  the  city  from  any  high  emin- 
ence, when  seemingly  from  the  most  separated 
quarters  of  Tanjore  arise  those  great  towers 
which  mark  the  temple-gates. 

These  towers  are  typical  element  of  Hindu 
temple-architecture.  Imagine  an  Egyptian  obel- 


258          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

isk  like  "Cleopatra's  Needle"  to  enlarge  its  girth, 
or  imagine  Washington  monument  to  lose  the 
greater  part  of  its  height.  See  it  also  bowing  its 
straight  lines  into  curves,  and  then  fancy  every 
surface  becoming  overwrought  with  fulsome 
sculptures  of  gods  and  goddesses.  Still  you  have 
to  picture  these  deep  reliefs  themselves  as  en- 
crusted with  smaller  figures  over  and  between 
the  arms  and  legs  of  the  larger  ones,  and  filling 
in  every  interstice  of  background,  like  bees  when 
they  are  preparing  to  swarm  from  the  hive.  The 
figures  are  always  fulsome,  with  exaggeration  of 
sexual  characteristics. 

Our  party  usually  included  a  stalwart  Moham- 
medan travelling-boy,  Amir  Bux,  as  well  as  two 
ladies  and  me;  but  when  we  came  to  any  shrine 
of  idolatry,  Amir,  as  a  follower  of  the  Prophet, 
remained  stolidly  outside,  and  left  such  adventur- 
ings  to  us  dogs  of  unbelievers. 

Equally  amazing  as  the  gate-way  towers  were 
some  objects  near  them.  We  mean  not  the  in- 
numerable beggars — no,  poor  creatures!  they 
raise  their  hideous  deformities  everywhere. 
Only  one  particular  beggar  at  this  gate  do  we  at 
all  remember,  a  young  girl  who  clawed  her  way 
thru  the  dust  to  show  with  pride  the  stumps  where 
her  legs  had  never  grown.  No,  it's  not  of  the  beg- 
gars we're  thinking,  but  of  the  far-famed  car  of 
the  jaggernath! 

Just  within  the  gate  stood  three  of  these  im- 
mense vehicles.  We  gazed  on  them  with  awe, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          259 

wondering  whether  their  wheels  had  crushed  out 
'the  lives  of  babes  thrown  under  them  by  fanatic 
parents,  as  missionaries  love  to  report.  Each 
wagon  formed  a  movable  throne  which  with  the 
figure  of  the  god  seated  on  it  was  wheeled  about, 
whenever,  as  divined  by  the  priests,  the  deity 
wished  to  make  a  state  visit  to  the  shrine  of  one 
of  his  heavenly  relatives.  The  throne  and  entire 
car  were  of  wood  carved  with  the  same  bewilder- 
ing Hindu  ornateness  as  the  towers. 

These  jaggernath  cars  were  the  only  interest- 
ing things  of  a  town  within  a  town  where  we 
found  ourselves  now  standing — namely  of  the 
city  of  the  Brahmans,  or  priestly  caste.  This  city 
was  situated  within  the  temple  walls.  The  ven- 
eration in  which  the  Brahman  aristocracy  of  In- 
dian society  is  held  by  the  commonalty  probably 
is  known  to  you — it  is  a  reverence  shared  only  by 
that  sacred  animal,  the  cow,  which  roams  unmol- 
ested thru  streets  and  houses  and  churches  of  this 
people.  To  arouse  Hindu  fury  against  an  enemy, 
you  say  not  "they  are  mutilating  women  and  chil- 
dren" but  "they  are  killing  cows  and  brahmans !" 
However  this  may  be,  we  found  the  brahman  city 
to  be  essentially  no  different  from  the  dwelling- 
places  of  the  lower  caste.  Here  was  scarcely  less 
poverty  and  certainly  no  less  filth.  The  place  was 
the  residence  of  a  hoard  of  priestly  guides  who 
urged  their  services  upon  us.  Tanjore  is  less  fre- 
quented of  foreigners  than  it  deserves  to  be,  and 
we  were  probably  the  only  non-natives  visiting 


260          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


JAGGERNATH    CARS,    MADURA 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          261 

it  at  this  time,  consequently  there  arose  a  keen 
rivalry  for  our  attention ;  but  we  finally  elected  to 
be  our  guide  the  most  intelligent,  slyest  young 
priest  of  the  crowd.  At  once  he  brushed  aside  the 
others,  and  conducted  us  from  the  Brahman  city 
into  the  temple  proper. 

We  must  pause  for  a  word  of  tribute  to  this 
priest.  His  mind  was  as  supple  as  his  graceful 
body.  Of  him  the  saying  was  literally  true,  that 
"butter  would  not  melt  in  his  mouth."  All  lying 
and  all  selfishness  and  all  hypocrisy  were  in  him 
brot  to  such  a  perfection  as  made  these  vices  seem 
to  be  most  pleasing  acquisitions.  With  what  con- 
temptuous delight  he  interpreted  to  us  from  pic- 
tures on  the  walls  the  sundry  erotic  adventures 
of  the  gods  whose  priest  he  was ;  "I  do  not  believe 
such  things,"  he  confided,  "for  me  there  is  only 
one  God!"  How  he  smiled  at  the  poor  flocks  of 
worshippers  who  prostrated  themselves  in  awe  be- 
fore the  shrine;  "I  am  working  for  my  belly!" 
laughed  he,  their  shepherd.  Finally,  when  the 
inevitable  time  came  for  parting,  how  suavely  he 
cozened  us  ourselves  out  of  many  times  the  usual 
fee,  and  sent  us  away  feeling  we  had  bought 
cheaply  acquaintanceship  with  such  a  personality ! 

O,  he  was  the  essence  of  all  priestcraft.  And  in 
the  superstitious  subjection  of  the  people  about 
him  could  be  seen  the  fell  fruit  of  the  undemo- 
cratic doctrine  that  the  masses  have  too  little  self- 
control  to  live  by  dry  truth,  as  we  of  the  elite  are 


262          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

able  to.  "The  masses  must  rather  be  given  half 
truth,  allegories  and  symbols." 

"Why  is  it,"  C.  H.  Cooley  asks,  "that  the  sym- 
bol encroaches  and  persists  beyond  its  function? 
Evidently  just  because  it  is  external,  capable  of 
imitation  and  repetition  without  fresh  thought 
and  life,  so  that  all  that  is  inert  and  mechanical 
clings  to  it.  All  dull  and  sensual  persons,  all  dull 
and  sensual  moods  in  any  person,  see  the  form  and 
not  the  substance.  The  spirit,  the  idea,  the  sen- 
timent, is  plainly  enough  the  reality  when  one  is 
awake  to  see  it,  but  how  easily  we  lose  our  hold 
upon  it  and  come  to  think  that  the  real  is  the 
tangible.  The  symbol  is  always  at  command;  we 
can  always  attend  church,  go  to  mass,  recite  pray- 
ers, contribute  money,  and  the  like ;  but  kindness, 
hope,  reverence,  humility,  courage,  have  no  string 
attached  to  them ;  they  come  and  go  as  the  spirit 
moves;  there  is  no  insurance  on  them.  Just  as 
in  the  schools  we  teach  facts  and  formulas  rather 
than  meanings,  because  the  former  can  be  re- 
ceived by  all  and  readily  tested,  so  religion  be- 
comes external  in  seeking  to  become  universal." 

Meantime  we  walked  thru  long  dark  galleries 
of  immense  length,  and  out  again  into  open  courts 
where  the  sunlight  blazed.  We  examined  gro- 
tesque representations  of  the  various  gods  and 
goddesses  of  the  Hindu  pantheon,  and  marvelled 
at  strange  types  of  architecture.  Then  we  explored 
gloomy  shrines  where  hideous  granite  figures  glis- 
tened black  with  the  grease  of  butter-fat  burned 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          263 

in  ovation  before  them.  We  followed  long  cor- 
ridors where  hundreds  of  bats  flew  away,  squeak- 
ing shrilly  at  our  approach.  We  entered  cham- 
bers where  the  only  light  came  from  constellations 
of  tiny  butter-lamps  fastened,  with  their  ornate 
brackets,  like  stars  over  the  face  of  great  doors. 

Thus  that  morning  passed.  To  our  joy  we 
learned  that  in  the  afternoon  there  was  to  be  a 
procession  thru  the  temple  in  honor  of  Parvati. 
Easily  our  priest-guide  prevailed  on  us  to  return 
to  see  it. 

We  lunched  at  our  hotel,  took  the  siesta  which 
is  a  necessity  in  the  Indian  climate,  and  went  for 
a  roundabout  drive  to  see  the  town  before  return- 
ing to  the  temple.  On  the  way  we  halted  by  the 
roadside  to  watch  a  bridal  procession.  The  brass 
band  that  preceded  it  broke  ranks  and  ran  to- 
ward us  helter  skelter  for  alms.  Next  the  groom 
left  his  bride  in  the  carriage  to  see  what  he  could 
get.  We  were  too  disgusted  to  give  anything. 
But  alas!  these  miserably  poor  people!  Their 
birth-rate  is  so  high  that  millions  starve, — and 
to  cure  the  evils  of  their  country  they  are  given 
not  knowledge  of  how  to  help  themselves,  but 
missionaries  and  imported  administrators! 

Our  priest-guide  of  the  morning  was  awaiting 
us  anxiously  when  we  returned  to  the  temple, 
with  the  news  that  the  procession  in  honor  of 
Parvati  was  assembled  and  about  to  set  forth. 
Accordingly  we  again  hurried  down  one  of  the 
most  lugubrious  galleries  in  the  heart  of  the  great 


264          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

building,  and  took  our  stand  in  a  corner  which 
commanded  several  vistas.  We  have  purposely  re- 
frained from  saying  we  commanded  a,  view  down 
these  vistas,  for  all  about  us  it  was  now  almost 
as  black  as  pitch.  Here  and  there  a  flicker  from 
the  brass  lamps  around  his  shrine  indicated  the 
recess  in  which  some  grotesque  idol  sat,  but  these 
roomy  galleries  were  nearly  empty  of  worship- 
pers. The  uncouth  square  stone  pillars,  upon 
which  the  slab  roof  pressed  heavily,  were  so  coat- 
ed with  smoke  and  grease  that  we  took  care  not 
to  lean  against  them.  In  the  air  was  a  rancid 
odor  from  the  melted  butter  being  offered  on 
many  altars.  Our  hearing  was  the  only  sense  as 
yet  undisturbed  by  some  strange  presentation.  An 
expectant  quiet  brooded  everywhere. 

But  suddenly  a  barbaric  blare  of  conch-shell 
trumpets  echoed  thru  the  vast  walls,  and  a  flock 
of  frightened  bats  passed  unpleasantly  close  to  us. 
Our  guide  had  hardly  more  time  than  need,  to  an- 
nounce "the  procession  is  coming"  than  a  flare  of 
flambeaux  chased  away  the  shadows,  and  around 
a  corner  of  the  stony  chambers  swung  a  crowd  of 
bronze-breasted  musicians  blowing  wierd  instru- 
ments, and — seeming  larger  than  life  as  the 
torches  threw  their  shadows  against  the  roof — 
huge  slow-striding  elephants! 

The  progress  of  the  procession  was  marked  by 
a  psychological  effect  upon  the  few  bystanders. 
As  it  successively  passed  them,  we  would  see  sud- 
den awe  strike  like  a  panic  into  the  faces  of  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          265 

more  religious.  Flat  on  the  ground  they  would 
hurl  themselves,  as  tho  grovelling  before  the  pres- 
ence of  immediate  death.  Despite  all  the  reassur- 
ances of  our  guide,  the  two  ladies  who  were  with 
us  shrank  back  in  some  terror  on  seeing  this 
fanaticism  seize  those  around  us;  and  whatever 
was  lacking  to  complete  their  emotion  was  added 
by  the  clamor  of  drums  and  wild  shrieking  of 
conch-shells.  We'd  give  anything  for  the  abil- 
ity to  reproduce  that  scene  in  its  full  dramatic 
and  operatic  power  over  all  the  primaeval  in- 
stincts ! 

When  the  elephants  and  musicians  had  paced 
past  us,  we  saw  the  central  object  of  all  super- 
stitious regard,  Parvati.  Her  image  was  a  sort 
of  little  rag-doll,  maybe  a  foot  high,  very  dirty, 
but  decked  out  in  a  wealth  of  ornaments,  and 
carried  high  on  a  litter  of  which  the  poles  were 
borne  by  some  dozen  half -naked  Brahmins. 

But  now  was  to  come  the  anti-climax,  illus- 
trating typically  the  Oriental's  lack  of  all  sense 
of  the  fitting  and  congruous.  Imagine  the  thing 
happening  to  the  Host  in  a  Roman  Catholic,  or  in 
a  Russian  orthodox,  procession !  When  the  bear- 
ers of  the  goddess  caught  sight  of  us  Europeans, 
thier  dignity  vanished  in  smoke,  and  they  behaved 
like  the  wedding  celebrants  we  had  seen  that 
afternoon.  They  left  their  precious  burden  un- 
ceremoniously and  ran  clamoring  to  us  for  alms ! 
Yes,  the  poor  little  rag-doll  goddess  in  her  glori- 
ous trinkets  and  tinsel  was  dropped  on  the  ground, 


266 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


whilst  her  worshippers  begged  a  few  annas !  When 
they  received  none,  they  raised  her  upon  their 
shoulders  again,  the  worshippers  mended  their 
broken  ranks,  the  elephants  and  torch-bearers 
wheeled  back  into  line,  the  acclamations  of  the 
crowd  were  resumed,  and  the  rattle  of  drums  and 


STONE  BULL  IN  TANJORE  TEMPLE. 

blare  of  trumpets  and  the  wierd  lights  and  shad- 
ows from  the  flambeaux  disappeared  around  some 
corner  of  the  gloomy  galleries.  A  few  bats  winged 
back  to  the  haunts  from  which  they  had  been  dis- 
turbed. The  smell  of  the  rancid  butter  and  the 
twinkling  of  distant  lamps  again  became  our  only 
sensations.  We  remained  for  a  while  amazed  and 
stunned. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          267 

After  that  we  left  the  temple.  We  requested 
our  priest  to  purchase  for  us  one  of  the  conch- 
shell  trumpets.  After  seeing  the  irreverent  con- 
duct— as  any  European  would  call  it — of  the  pole- 
bearers,  we  anticipated  no  trouble  in  buying  any 
religious  or  other  appurtenance  which  we  cared 
to  pay  for.  But  the  next  day  at  train-time  our 
guide  appeared  at  the  station,  most  apologetic, 
to  say  that  no  money  would  induce  one  of  the  men 
to  part  with  his  horn. 


COURT  OF  TEMPLE  AT  TANJORE. 

Our  next  stay  was  at  Trichinopoly,  where  is 
the  most  beautiful  (and  one  of  the  largest)  Hindu 
temples  in  the  world.  During  our  visit  they'd  a 
religious  celebration,  sort  of  like  a  circus.  Most 
of  the  temple  was  given  over  to  linga  (the  em- 
blems of  phallic  worship) .  They  consist  of  stone 
cylinders,  two  or  three  feet  high,  set  in  the  center 
of  circular  disks ;  these  represent  the  male  organ 
piercing  the  female.  In  this  temple  the  linga 
stand  in  the  arcade  which  can  be  seen  in  the  ex- 
treme rear  of  the  picture.  The  women  sit  upon 
the  lingam  as  a  cure  for  sterility. 

On  the  way  out  (Jan.  19,  1916),  we  stopped  to 


268          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

see  a  Vishnu  temple  where  Vishnu  left  a  foot- 
print as  big  as  the  top  of  a  small  table,  in  the 
rock. 

In  Benares,  quite  early  one  December  morning, 
Mrs.  S —  and  the  writer  took  a  boat  in  which  we 
were  rowed  down  and  up  the  Ganges.  We  saw  the 
extraordinary  temples  which  line  the  waterfront 
and  of  which  some  are  sliding  into  the  river.  The 
most  striking  sight  was  a  "holy  man"  in  brilliant 
yellow  robe  and  painted  face,  who,  all  the  time 
we  were  floating  by,  balanced  himself  immove- 
ably  upon  one  foot  and  held  one  hand  pointing 
dramatically  to  heaven.  We  didn't  see  dead 
bodies  being  cremated  on  the  burning-ghats,  so 
made  the  trip  again  in  the  evening  and  this  time 
did  see  them.  In  the  afternoon  we  drove  out  to 
the  ruins  at  Sarnath,  where  Buddha's  five  dis- 
ciples had  deserted  him  before  his  enlightenment, 
and  where  he  preached  his  first  sermon  there- 
after. 

We  surely  should  have  "acquired  merit"  in  vis- 
iting all  these  "holy  places." 

Benares  itself  was  disappointing  to  our  party, 
tho  interesting  despite  all  its  dirt.  In  the  cut 
herewith  shown  of  its  temples  along  the  Ganges, 
the  phallic  architecture  is  seen. 

The  same  slyness  that  we  noted  in  our  priest 
guide  of  the  Madura  Temple  is  typical  of  all 
the  eastern  religious  men  whom  we've  met.  Only 
a  few  evenings  ago  we  were  perusing  the  gospel 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


269 


of  Ramakrishna,1-  that  is,  of  the  Bhagavan  whom 
thousands  worship  as  the  most  recent  incarnation 
of  the  diety — he  was  preached  in  this  country  by 
his  pupil  and  disciple  Swaani  Vivekananda.  There 
among  much  that  is  beautiful,  occurs  the  fol- 


BENARES  FROM  THE  GANGES 

lowing  jarring  passage.  Narendra  (Vivekanan- 
da) asks  "what  attitude  should  we  hold  when 
wicked  people  come  to  disturb  our  peace  or  do 
actually  offend  us?"  To  which  the  Bhagavan 
answers:  "A  person  living  in  society  should  have 
a  little  Tamas  (the  spirit  of  resisting  evil)  for 
purposes  of  self-protection.  But  that  is  neces- 

"  p.   40. 


270          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

sary  only  for  outward  show,  its  object  being  to 
prevent  the  wicked  doing  harm  to  you.  At  the 
same  time  you  should  not  do  actual  injury  to 
another  on  the  ground  that  he  has  done  injury 
to  you." 

In  short  here's  a  Savior  who  preaches  that  we 
may  enjoy  the  merit  of  living  non-resistantly, 
by  bluffing  our  enemies  into  thinking  we  are  go- 
ing to  use  force !  Indeed  Ramakrishna  goes  on  to 
illustrate  his  point  with  a  story  of  a  snake  who 
was  persuaded  by  a  holy  man  not  to  bite  anyone, 
but  "in  a  few  days  all  the  neighborhood  conclud- 
ed that  the  snake  had  lost  his  venom  ....  so 
everyone  began  to  tease  him.  They  pelted  him 
with  stones  or  dragged  him  mercilessly  by  the 
tail,  and  there  was  no  end  to  his  troubles.  For- 
tunately the  sage  again  passed  that  way  .... 
and  seeing  the  condition  of  the  snake  ....  said 
'my  friend,  I  simply  advised  you  not  to  bite  any- 
one, but  I  did  not  tell  you  not  to  frighten  others. 
Altho  you  should  not  bite  any  living  creature, 
still  you  should  keep  people  at  a  distance  by  hiss- 
ing at  them.'  And  Sri  Samakrishna  added :  There 
is  no  harm  in  'hissing'  at  wicked  men  and  at  your 
enemies,  showing  that  you  can  protect  yourself 
and  know  how  to  resist  evil.  Only  .  .  .  resist 
not  evil  by  causing  evil  in  return." 

Surely  a  strange  doctrine !  How  should  we  con- 
vert others  to  believe  in  a  doctrine  which  we  thus 
outwardly  appeared  to  deny  and  how  thus  propa- 
gate the  truth?  Or  how  long  would  it  take  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          271 

world  to  discover  our  bluff  and  take  it  at  its 
true  value? 

While  in  Calcutta  in  1916  we  became  for  a  time 
a  pupil  of  the  noted  Sri  Sri  Narayananda  Saras- 
watty,  of  Lodipur,  of  whom  we  had  read  in  a  Cal- 
cutta paper  that  "He  is  an  Advaita  Vadi  or  a  be- 
liever in  non-dulism  and  is  said  to  be  the  follower 
of  Shankaracharya,  the  great  religious  reformer 


HINDU  HOLY  MAN. 

who  appeared  when  Buddhism  was  the  State  re- 
ligion in  India.  He  is  an  advocate  of  the  Upan- 
ishads  and  is  called  the  'Raj-Yogi'  or  King  of 
Yogis.  He  is  reputed  to  be  125  years  of  age  and 
although  married  is  a  Bramhachari.  'His  Holi- 
ness/ for  such  is  he  called  by  his  followers,  is  said 
to  have  practised  'Yog'  for  three  years  in  the 
forests  of  Gujerath  and  those  near  Lucknow.  He 
is  reported  to  be  able  to  bring  the  dead  to  life 


272          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

and  generally  is  looked  upon  by  hundreds  as  a 
man  of  miracles  and  one  who  is  second  to  none 
in  India.  .  .  .  Hundreds  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren visit  him  everyday  to  embrace  his  feet  and 
receive  his  blessing  and  his  presence  in  the  local- 
ity has  caused  and  is  causing  a  great  deal  of  sen- 
sation. .  .  .  About  a  score  of  his  disciples  who 
were  present  vouched  for  the  fact,  that  His  Holi- 
ness appears  to  be  one  day  over  a  hundred  years 
and  the  next  a  lad  of  20  or  sometimes  a  baby  of 
one  year. 

"The  following  specific  instances  were  given  of 
his  reported  miracles.  Bissessur  Nath  Khetery, 
Government  Pensioner  and  one  of  His  Holiness 
disciples,  said  that  about  a  year  ago  he  was  suf- 
fering from  heart  disease  and  died  from  its  ef- 
fects but  was  brought  to  life  again  through  the 
blessing  of  His  Holiness.  Again  he  was  later  at- 
tacked with  plague  and  was  restored  in  the  same 
way.  The  son  of  Thakur  Prasad,  Inspector  of 
Sanskrit  Schools,  Allahabad,  is  said  to  have  been 
rid  of  a  malignant  disease,  which  was  pronounced 
to  be  incurable  by  eminent  medical  men,  through 
the  same  instrumentality;  and  a  man  who  had 
died  of  plague  at  his  "asram"  was  brought  to 
life.  Among  the  followers  of  His  Holiness  are 
said  to  be  European  gentlemen  of  position,  also 
Indian  Judges,  Government  officials  and  vakils, 
etc.,  who  look  upon  him  as  their  guru."  More- 
over he  was  one  of  few  men  of  his  type  we've 
met  who  refused  to  take  money  but  insisted  en 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          273 

giving  us  Yoga  instructions  without  pay.  Once 
we  said  to  him  "when  we  return  home,  many 
persons  will  wish  to  know  whether  we  with  our 
own  eyes  have  seen  you  perform  miracles.  And 
unless  we  can  answer  'we  ourselves  have  seen  him 
perform  them'  they  won't  believe  that  you  have 
supernatural  powers.  We  wish  we  might  be  able 
to  reply  'we  have  seen'."  But  Sri  Sri  Saraswatty 
mildly  expressed  his  disappointment  in  us  for 
desiring  so  vulgar  a  demonstration,  and  assured 
us  that  no  true  yogi  will  display  his  powers  to 
the  curious  or  the  unconvinced. 

It's  possible  that  the  reputed  miracles  of  these 
holy  men  and  of  saints  and  saviors  generally  are 
delusious  effected  thru  hypnotic  power — which 
as  Freud  and  Jung  and  others  have  shown,  is  in 
nature  sexual — moreover  the  initiators  of  these 
movements  like  leaders  in  other  fields,  are  largely 
epileptics  and  hysterics.  It  was  true  of  the 
greatest  military  leaders  like  Caesar,  Hannibal,  or 
Napoleon;  it  was  true  of  Mahomet  and  of 
various  characters  described  in  that  interesting 
little  booklet  "Modern  Messiahs,"  and  any  psych- 
istrist  would  aver  it  was  true  of  Buddha  or  Ra- 
makrishna,  from  reading  their  biographies. 
Binet  and  Sangle  have  written  two  heavy 
volumes  on  "La  'Folie  de  Jesus."  A  very  inter- 
esting account  of  the  role  of  sexuality  in  religion 
is  given  by  Josiah  Royce  in  his  "Pathological  As- 
pects," which  we  urge  every  interested  student 
to  procure.  Fortunately  there  remain  other 


274          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ways  of  sublimating  the  yearnings  of  our  soul, 
besides  these  pathological  or  superstitious  chan- 
nels. Of  such  ways  the  most  promising  is  to  di- 
rect our  love  toward  humanity  as  a  whole,  and 
to  develop  in  ourselves  the  character  most  con- 
sonent  with  social  welfare.  How  to  accomplish 
this  we  shall  in  due  course  discuss  adequately. 
It  is  our  program  first  to  review  in  a  general  way 
the  historical  development  of  religions. 


SECTION  2 

Here  we  may  enquire  what  is  the  derivation  of 
the  erotic  instinct  itself,  out  of  which  we  find  to 
be  evolved  the  most  marvelous  facts  of  life? 

We  devoted  much  space  to  the  guesses  that 
primitive  man  made  at  the  nature  of  self,  of 
"will"  and  of  the  hereafter.  Turn  we  now  to 
certain  scientific  theories  of  today. 

As  Max  Verworn  indicates,  all  muscular  work 
of  the  organisms  is  based  finally  upon  chemical 
energy,  tho  much  of  their  energy  may  come  in  a 
roundabout  way.  E.g.,  in  plants  chemical  energy 
passes  over  into  potential,  mechanical  energy 
is  stored  up  as  tension,  and  becomes  kinetic — 
e.g.,  where  fruit  bursts  open  and  scatters  its  seeds 
with  great  force. 

In  the  cell,  energy  is  transformed  into  mechan- 
ical energy  and  into  heat.  Chemical  energy 
becomes  potential  in  making  biogens,  and  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          275 

intra-molecular  heat  becomes  very  great;  strong 
affinities  are  thus  united.  (A  dissemilation  pro- 
cess). The  excreta  contain  almost  no  chemical 
potential;  while  those  substances  retained  in  the 
cell  serve  to  help  to  unite  proteids,  etc.,  and  oxy- 
gen again,  i.  e.,  to  loosen  the  biogen  molecule. 
As  regards  the  vital  chemical  chain,  "continual 
storing  up  of  potential  chemical  energy  and  a 
transfer  of  it  into  other  forms,  the  source  of  it 
is  in  the  food  and  oxygen ;  the  original  capital  of 
it  is  in  the  chemical  energy  that  every  droplet 
of  living  substance  has  carried  over  from  its  an- 
cestors; and  the  result  is  expressed  in  the  work 
accomplished  by  the  living  substance. 

Oil  droplets  in  alkalies  form  pseadopodia.  The 
surface  tension  between  the  two  discs  in  striated 
muscular  fibres  changes,  and  thus  contraction  oc- 
curs. Chemical  and  mechanical  energy  alone 
accomplishes  muscular  contraction,  without  the 
aid  of  heat  or  electricity. 

Reduction  of  conduct  to  comparatively  small 
number  of  primary  motives  is  the  aim  of  Loeb, 
with  his  galvano,  helio-,  geo-,  rheo-,  anemo-, 
stereo-,  chemo-  and  thermo-tropisms.  The  follow- 
ing extensive  quotations  summarize  his  book, 
"Forced  Movements,  Tropisms,  and  Animal  Con- 
duct." 

"The  term  forced  movements  (in)  physiology, 
designates  the  fact  that  certain  animals  are  no 
longer  able  to  move  in  a  straight  line  when  cer- 


276          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tain  parts  of  the  brain  are  injured,  but  are  com- 
pelled to  deviate  constantly  toward  one  side.13 

"Normally  the  processes  inducing  locomotion 
are  equal  in  both  halves  of  the  central  nervous 
system,  and  the  tension  of  the  symmetrical  mus- 
cles being  equal,  the  animal  moves  in  as  straight 
a  line  as  the  imperfections  of  its  locomotor  ap- 
paratus permit.  If,  however,  the  velocity  of 
chemical  reactions  in  one  side  of  the  body,  e.  g., 
in  one  eye  of  an  insect,  is  increased,  the  physio- 
logical symmetry  of  both  sides  of  the  brain  and 
as  a  consequence  the  equality  of  tension  of  the 
symmetrical  muscles  no  longer  exist.  The  mus- 
cles connected  with  the  more  strongly  illuminated 
eye  are  thrown  into  a  stronger  tension,  and  if 
now  impulses  for  locomotion  originate  in  the  cen- 
tral nervous  system,  they  will  no  longer  produce 
an  equal  response  in  the  symmetrical  muscles,  but 
a  stronger  one  in  the  muscles  turning  the  head 
and  body  of  the  animal  to  the  source  of  light. 
The  animal  will  thus  be  compelled  to  change 
the  direction  of  its  motion  and  to  turn  to 
the  source  of  light.  As  soon  as  the  plane  of 
symmetry  goes  thru  the  source  of  light,  both  eyes 
receive  again  equal  illumination,  the  tension  (or 
tonus)  of  symmetrical  muscles  becomes  equal 
again,  and  the  impulses  for  locomotion  will  now 
produce  equal  activity  in  the  symmetrical  mus- 
cles. As  a  consequence,  the  animal  will  move  in 
a  straight  line  to  the  source  of  light  until  some 

13Pp.    14-15. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HLEPFULNESS          277 

other  asymmetrical  disturbance  once  more 
changes  the  direction  of  motion. 

"What  has  been  stated  for  light  holds  true  also 
if  light  is  replaced  by  any  other  form  of  energy. 
Motions  caused  by  light  or  other  agencies  appear 
to  the  layman  as  expressions  of  will  and  purpose 
on  the  part  of  the  animal,  whereas  in  reality  the 
animal  is  forced  to  go  where  carried  by  its  legs. 
For  the  conduct  of  animals  consists  of  forced 
movements.14 

"If  pleasure  and  pain  or  curiosity  play  a  role 
in  human  conduct,  why  should  it  be  otherwise  in 
animal  conduct?  The  answer  to  this  objection  is 
that  typical  forced  movements  when  produced  in 
human  beings,  as,  e.  g.,  in  Meniere's  disease  or 
when  a  galvanic  current  goes  thru  the  brain,  are 
not  accompanied  by  sensations  of  pleasure  or 
pain,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  attribute  the  circus 
movements  of  an  animal,  after  lesion  of  the  brain, 
or  when  one  eye  is  blackened,  to  curiosity  or  thrills 
of  delight.  An  equally  forcible  answer  lies  in  the 
fact  that  plants  show  the  same  tropisms  as  ani- 
mals, and  it  seems  somewhat  arbitrary  to  assume 
that  the  bending  of  a  plant  to  the  window  or  the 
motion  of  swarmspores  of  algae  to  the  window 
side  of  a  vessel  are  accompanied  or  determined 
by  curiosity  or  by  sensations  of  joy  or  satisfac- 
tion. And  finally,  since  we  know  nothing  of  the 
sentiments  and  sensations  of  lower  animals,  and 

"Pp.   13-14. 


278          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

are  still  less  able  to  measure  them,  there  is  at 
present  no  place  for  them  in  science. 

"The  second  difficulty  was  created  by  the  fact 
that  the  Aristotelian  viewpoint  still  prevails  to 
some  extent  in  biology,  namely,  that  an  animal 
moves  only  for  a  purpose,  either  to  seek  food  or 
to  seek  its  mate  or  to  undertake  something  else 
connected  with  the  preservation  of  the  individual 
or  the  race.  The  Aristotelians  had  explained  the 
processes  in  the  inanimate  world  in  the  same 
teleological  way.  Science  began  when  Galileo 
overthrew  this  Aristotelian  mode  of  thot  and  in- 
troduced the  method  of  quantitative  experiments 
which  leads  to  mathematical  laws  free  from  the 
metaphysical  conception  of  purpose.15 

"We  have  thus  far  considered  only  the  relations 
between  right  and  left.  Aside  from  the  symmetry 
relation  we  have  polarity  relations,  between  apex 
or  head  and  base  or  tail  end.  Just  as  we  found 
that  the  morphological  plane  of  symmetry  is  also 
a  dynamical  plane  of  symmetry,  we  find  that  with 
the  morphological  polarity  head-tail  is  connected 
a  dynamic  polarity  of  motion,  namely,  forward 
and  backward.  This  will  become  clear  in  the  next 
chapter  on  forced  movements.16 

"Physiologists  have  long  been  in  the  habit  of 
studying  not  the  reactions  of  the  whole  organism, 
but  the  reactions  of  isolated  segments  (the  so- 
called  reflexes).  .  .  . 


l5Pp.    17-18. 
18P.  21. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


279 


"When  we  put  a  Palaemonetes  in  a  trough  thru 
which  a  current  goes  and  if  we  put  the  animal 
with  its  head  toward  the  anode  the  tail  is  stretched 
out  (Fig.  2).  This  means  that  the  tension  of  the 


Fio.  2.— Forced  position  of  thnmp  (Palamontlet)  when  galvanic  current  get*  from 
?e*°  *°  UlJ-  .  Tension  of  extensor  miucles  of  tail  fin  prevails  over  that  of  flexors 
Animal  can  iwim  forward  (to  anode),  but  not  backward.  (After  Loeb  and  Maxwell  ) 


Flo.  3. — Forced  position  of  shrimp  when  positive  current  goes  from  tail  to  head. 
Tension  of  flexon  of  tail  fin  prevails  over  that  of  extensors.  Animal  can  swim  backward 
(to  anode),  but  not  forward.  (After  Loeb  and  Maxwell.) 

FROM  LOEB. 

extensor  muscles  prevails  over  that  of  the  flexors 
and  since  the  forward  swimming  is  due  to  the 
stroke  of  the  extensors,  and  since  it  is  antagonized 
by  the  tension  of  the  flexors,  the  animal  can  swim 
forward  but  not  backward,  or  only  with  diffi- 
culty ;  if  we  put  the  animal  with  its  head  toward 


280          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

the  cathode  the  tail  is  bent  ventrally  (Fig.  3), 
which  means  that  the  tension  of  the  flexors  is 
stronger  than  that  of  the  extensors.  As  a  conse- 
quence the  animal  can  swim  backward,  but  not 
forward.17 

IN  HELIOTROPISM. 

"In  the  case  of  unequal  illumination  of  the  two 
eyes  the  tension  of  the  symmetrical  muscles  in 
an  animal  becomes  unequal.  In  this  condition 
the  equal  impulses  of  locomotion  will  result  in 
an  unequal  contraction  of  the  muscles  on  both 
sides  of  the  animal.  As  a  consequence  the  animal 
will  turn  automatically  until  its  plane  of  sym- 
metry is  in  the  direction  of  the  rays  of  light.  As 
soon  as  this  happens  the  illumination  of  both  eyes 
and  the  tension  of  symmetrical  muscles  become 
equal  again  and  the  animal  will  now  move  in  a 
straight  line — either  to  or  from  the  source  of 
light.18 

"That  these  animals  do  not  go  to  the  light  be- 
cause they  prefer  light  to  darkness  but  because 
the  light  orients  them  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
they  will  go  from  light  into  the  shade  if  by  so  do- 
ing they  remain  oriented  with  their  heads  toward 
the  source  of  light.19 

"As  Bonn  pointed  out,  the  definite  path  in  which 
a  positively  heliotropic  animal  moves  when  under 
the  influence  of  two  lights,  shows  that  the  an- 


17Pp.    34-35. 
"Pp.    47-48. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          281 

thropomorphic  interpretation  is  as  erroneous  in 
this  as  in  any  other  case.  A  human  being  would 
go  to  one  of  two  illuminated  houses  and  not  to- 
ward a  point  between  them,  determined  by  the 
relative  intensity  of  the  two  lights.20 

"The  law  of  Bunsen  and  Roscoe  says  that  with- 
in certain  limits  the  chemical  effect  produced  by 
light  increases  in  proportion  with  the  product  of 
intensity  into  the  duration  of  illumination,  e.  g., 
Effect  equals  Kit,  where  i  is  intensity,  t  duration 
of  illumination,  and  K  a  constant.21 

GEOTROPISM. 

"When  the  stem  of  certain  plants  is  placed  in  a 
horizontal  position,  the  apex  grows  vertically  up- 
ward and  the  root  downward.  The  downward 
growth  of  the  root  is  called  positive,  the  upward 
growth  of  the  apex  negative  geotropism. 

"This  can  be  demonstrated  if  we  mark  the 
cortex  in  definite  intervals  with  india  ink  at  the 
beginning  of  the  experiment When  we  com- 
pare the  rate  of  geotropic  bending  of  horizontal 
stems  without  leaves  and  with  one  or  two  leaves 
at  the  apex,  we  find  that  the  bending  in  the  latter 
is  much  more  rapid,  owing  to  the  greater  mass 
of  material  supplied  for  the  growth  of  the  cortex. 

"In  vertebrates  the  reactions  leading  to  the 
maintenance  of  equilibrium  are  apparently  pro- 


1!>P.   50  or  so. 
'•P.   82. 
21P.   83. 


282          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

duced  in  the  ear,  since  they  disappear  if  the 
acoustic  nerves  are  cut. 

"It  seems  that  some  change  in  the  pressure 
upon  the  endings  of  the  auditory  nerve  is  respon- 
sible for  the  effects.  There  are  fine  grains  of 
CaC03 — the  otoliths — in  the  ear  of  many  species 
pressing  on  the  underlying  nerve  endings.22 

"A  crustacean,  Palaemen,  loses  its  otoliths  in 
the  process  of  moulting  and  the  animal  curiously 
enough  replaces  them  by  picking  up  small  grains 
of  sand  and  putting  them  into  its  ears.  Kreidl 
kept  such  crustaceans  in  jars  free  from  sand  but 
containing  fine  particles  of  iron  which  the  crus- 
taceans after  moulting  put  into  their  ears 

When,  e.g.,  he  brought  a  magnet  from  above  and 
the  right  near  the  animal  the  latter  turned  to  the 
left  and  downward.  The  animal,  therefore,  be- 
haved as  if  changes  of  pressure  of  the  otolith 
upon  the  nerve  endings  determined  its  geotropic 
orientation.23 

Lyon  has  shown  that  the  phenomena  which 
were  formerly  described  as  rheotropism  in  fish 
are  due  to  the  orienting  effect  of  moving  retina 
images.  The  reader  is  familiar  with  the  fact 
that  many  fish  when  in  a  lively  current  have  a 
tendency  to  swim  against  the  current.  This 
phenomenon  was  believed  to  be  due  to  the  fric- 
tion of  the  water.  Lyon  showed  that  fish  orient 
themselves  just  as  well  when  they  are  put  into 


"P.   123. 
»P.    124. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          283 

a  closed  glass  bottle,  which  is  dragged  through 
the  water. 

"When  driven  backward  by  the  current  or  when 
dragged  backward  in  a  bottle  through  the  water, 
the  objects  on  the  bank  of  the  river  seem  to  move 
in  the  opposite  direction.  The  animal  being  com- 
pelled to  keep  the  same  object  fixed,  an  apparent 
forward  motion  of  the  fixed  object  changes  the 
muscles  of  the  fins  in  such  a  sense  as  to  cause 
the  animal  to  follow  the  fixed  object  auto- 
matically. 

"When  such  rheotropic  fishes  were,  kept  in  an 
aquarium  and  a  white  sheet  of  paper  with  black 
stripes  was  moved  constantly  in  front  of  the 
aquarium  the  fish  oriented  themselves  against  the 
direction  in  which  the  paper  and  its  stripes 
moved.  The  phenomenon  was  more  marked  hi 
young  than  in  older  specimens. 

"All  the  phenomena  of  rheotropism  ceased  in 
the  dark  or  when  the  fish  were  blind. 

"A  very  pretty  demonstration  was  discovered 
by  Carrey  in  sticklebacks.176  When  a  swarm  of 
such  fish  was  kept  in  an  aquarium  it  was  noticed 
that  all  the  fish  were  oriented  with  the  long  axes 
parallel  and  that  the  whole  school  swam  in  a 
course  parallel,  but  in  a  direction  opposite,  to  that 
of  the  moving  observer.  If  the  observer  re- 
mains stationary  opposite  the  aquarium  and 
moves  an  object,  preferably  white,  which  is  held 
in  the  hand,  the  little  fish  at  once  respond  by 
moving  slowly  and  oppositely  to  that  of  the  mov- 


284          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ing  object.  They  can  be  thus  made  to  move  up 
or  down  or  to  the  right  or  left.24 

"STEREOTROPISM  ...  is  determined  by  ... 
pressure  on  certain  nerve  endings  in  the  skin  .  .  . 

"The  role  of  tactile  influences  on  the  orienta- 
tion of  animals  is  most  clearly  demonstrable  in 
starfish,  flatworms,  and  many  other  animals, 
when  put  on  their  backs.  The  animals  'right' 
themselves,  i.  e.,  they  turn  around  until  the  ven- 
tral surfaces  or  their  feet  are  pressed  against 
solid  objects  again.  As  the  writer  pointed  out 
long  ago,2^3  gravitation  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  phenomenon,  since  starfish  will  stick  to  solid 
surfaces  with  their  tube  feet  even  if  by  so  doing 
their  backs  are  permanently  turned  to  the  center 
of  the  earth.  Unless  the  nerve  endings  on  the 
sole  of  their  tube  feet  are  pressed  against  a  solid 
surface  the  animals  are  restless  -and  the  arms 
move  about  until  the  feet  are  again  in  contact 
with  solid  bodies.25 

"In  female  ants  at  the  time  of  sexual  maturity. 
When  such  animals  are  put  into  a  box  containing 
folded  pieces  of  paper  or  of  cloth,  after  some  time 
every  individual  is  found  inside  the  folds.  This 
happens  also  when  the  boxes  are  kept  in  the 
dark.287 

The  same  form  of  stereotropism  is  found  in 
many  species  of  worms.  When  earthworms  are 
kept  in  jars  with  vertical  walls  they  are  found 
creeping  in  the  corners  where  their  body  is  as 

"Pp.    131-133. 
"P.  134. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          285 

much  as  possible  in  contact  with  solid  bodies.  It 
is  this  tropism  which  compels  the  animals  to  bur- 
row into  the  ground.26 

"MaxwelP49  kept  Nereis,  a  form  of  marine 
worms,  which  burrows  in  sand,  in  a  porcelain  dish 
free  from  sand.  Into  the  dish  glass  tubes  were 
put,  whose  diameter  was  of  the  order  of  that  of 
the  worms.  After  24  hours  every  tube  was  in- 
habited by  a  worm  who  made  it  its  permanent 
abode.  They  even  remained  in  the  tube  when  ex- 
posed to  sunlight  which  rapidly  killed  them.27 

"There  are  indications  that  the  way  contact 
with  a  solid  influences  the  behavior  of  living  mat- 
ter is  also  through  the  influence  on  the  rate  of 
certain  chemical  reactions.  The  writer  observed 
that  the  stolons  of  a  hydroid,  Aglaophenia,  have 
a  tendency  to  adhere  to  solid  surfaces  and  not  to 
leave  them  any  more  if  they  once  reach  them, 
and  that  as  soon  as  such  a  stolon  reaches  a  solid 
surface,  e.  g.,  a  piece  of  a  glass  slide,  its  growth 
is  accelerated  considerably.  It  was  very  astonish- 
ing to  notice  how  much  more  rapid  the  growth 
of  roots  of  Aglaophenia  was  when  they  were 
in  contact  with  a  solid  body  than  when  they  grew 
in  sea  water.  The  rate  of  growth  is  the  function 
of  a  chemical  mass  action.28 

CHEMOTROPISM  is  for  Loeb  the  explanation 
of  many  physiologic  progresses,  e.  g.,  breathing  is 
quickened  by  the  increased  acidity  of  th^  blood. 


-"P.   135. 
-7Pp.    135-136. 
WP.    138. 


286          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

"Pfeffer  and  his  pupils  found  that  the  sperma- 
toza  of  ferns  go  in  large  numbers  into  a  capil- 
lary tube  containing  sodium  malate  in  a  concen- 
tration of  0.01  per  cent,  (a  solution  ten  times  as 
diluted  is  still  slightly  active)  ....  Pfeffer  found 
that  Bacterium  termo  and  Spirillum  undula  are 
positively  chemotropic  to  a  liquid  containing 
0.001  per  cent  of  peptone  or  of  meat  extract.  It 
is  stated  that  cholera  bacilli  are  strongly  attract- 
ed by  potato  sap.  Pfeffer  found  also  that  the 
spermatoza  of  certain  masses  are  positively 
chemotropic  to  cane  sugar  solution  in  dilutions 
of  0.1  per  cent.29 

"Shibata  made  extensive  experiments  on  the 
chemotropism  of  the  spermatozoa  of  Isoetes 
which  he  found  positively  chemotropic  for  the 
malate  anion,  and  also  for  the  succinate,  tartrate, 
and  fumarate  anion,  when  offered  in  the  form  of 
their  neutral  salts.  .  .  . 

"Shibata  studied  especially  the  mode  by  which 
the  spermatozoa  are  oriented  chemotropically  by 
malates  and  found  that  the  reaction  consists 
always  in  a  turning  of  the  axis  of  the  body  of  the 
spermatozoa  toward  the  capillary  tube  contain- 
ing malates  or  succinates,  as  the  tropism  theory 
demands. 

"They  will  not  go  into  the  tube  unless  the  con- 
centration in  the  tube  is  a  definite  multiple  of 
the  concentration  of  the  outside  solution.  Thus 
Pfeffer  found  that  the  concentration  of  sodium 

"Pp.    140-141. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          287 

malate  in  the  capillary  must  be  at  least  thirty 
times  as  great  as  in  the  outside  solution  to  induce 
the  spermatozoa  of  fern  to  move  into  it,  and  in 
the  case  of  Bacterium  termo  the  solution  of  meat 
extract  in  the  tube  had  to  be  at  least  four  times 
as  great  as  the  outside  solution.  In  the  case  of 
Isoetes  spermatozoa  Shibata  found  the  ratio  is 
about  400  to  1.  This  constancy  of  the  ratio  is 
known  as  Weber's  law,  which  therefore  holds  for 
chemotropic  phenomena. 

"Lidforss281  found  with  the  aid  of  Pfeffer's 
method  that  the  spermatozoa  of  Marchantia  are 
positively  chemotropic  to  certain  proteins,  espe- 
cially egg  albumin,  vitellin  from  the  egg  yolk, 
hemoglobin,  and  mucin  of  the  sub-maxillary 
gland;  blood  albumin,  casein,  and  legumin  were 
less  effective.  The  lowest  concentration  for  he- 
moglobin solutions  and  for  egg  albumin  was 
0.001  per  cent.  !30 

"Barrows  has  devised  an  apparatus  which  al- 
lowed him  to  test  quantitatively  the  chemotropic 
reactions  of  Drosophila  ....  Two  glass  bot- 
tles were  inserted  with  their  openings  oppo- 
site each  other,  one  of  which  contained  the 
substance  to  be  tested  for  chemotropic  efficiency, 
while  the  other  served  as  a  control.  The  num- 
ber of  flies  which  on  their  path  were  deviated  by 
the  bottle  containing  the  substance  to  be  tested 
were  counted  and  their  number  compared  with 
that  going  into  the  control  bottle.  In  this  way 

""Pp.    141-142. 


288          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

it  was  possible  to  ascertain  that  the  flies  are  posi- 
tively chemotropic  to  ethyl  and  amyl  alcohol, 
acetic  and  lactic  acid,  and  to  ether.  The  chemo- 
tropic effect  of  alcohol  was  increased  thru  the 
admixture  of  traces  of  an  ester,  e.  g.,  methyl  ace- 
tate. 

"When  an  animal  is  struck  on  one  side  only  by 
.  .  .  a  chemically  active  substance  emanating 
from  a  center  of  diffusion,  the  mass  of  this  sub- 
stance or  of  the  photochemical  reaction  product 
increases  on  this  side.  These  substances  react 
with  some  substance  of  the  nerve  endings  and  as 
soon  as  the  mass  of  the  reaction  product  reaches 
a  certain  quantity  the  automatic  turning,  the  trop- 
istic  reaction  occurs."31 

"THERMOTROPISM  is  the  name  under  which 
M.  Mendelssohn  has  described  the  observation 
that  Paramaecia  gather  at  a  definite  end  of  a 
trough  when  these  ends  have  .  .  .  different 
temperature.22" 

The  position  of  Loeb  is  paralleled  by  tliat  of 
Max  Verworn,  with  his  photo-,  thermo-,  galvano-, 
chemo-,  baro-,  rheo-,  and  geo-,  taxis. 

The  following  is  a  summary  by  Dr.  Givler  of 
Verworn's  General  Physiology,  Chapter  V,  on 
Stimuli  and  their  actions. 

A  Stimulus  is  "every  change  of  the  external 
agencies  that  act  upon  an  organism.  The  stimu- 
lus plus  irritability  is  stimulation.  We  shall  be- 


1lPp.    153-154. 
"P.    155. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          289 

gin  by  Verworn's  remarks  on  (A)  the  Relation 
of  Stimuli  to  Vital  Conditions.  (1)  The  varieties 
of  the  stimulus  are  (a)  chemical,  e.  g.,  food,  water, 
oxygen,  also  chemical  processes  in  the  nervous 
system  influencing  the  various  tissue  cells. 
Nerves  are  not  copper  wires  but  chemical  (liquid) 
masses,  (b)  Mechanical,  push,  shake,  press, 
etc.,  e.  g.,  sound  (c)  thermal,  (d)  photic  (e)  elec- 
trical not  (f)  magnetic.  (2)  The  intensity  of 
the  Stimulus  may  be  thus  shown. 
Vital  Conditions 

Minimum  Optimum  Maximum 
Death          Life          Death 
Stim  (Adaption)  Stim 
Conditions  of 
Stimulation 

Maximum     Zero  Point     Maximum 

Death  Life  Death 

(3)  Trophic  Stimuli  are  those  concerned  with 
nutrition  and  without  which  nutrition  would  not 
take  place,  e.  g.,  sight  of  food,  makes  the  organ- 
ism move  to  get  it.  B  is  the  Irritability  of  Living 
Substance.  (1)  Conception  of  Irritability  and 
the  Nature  of  Reactions.  "Irritability  of  Living 
Substance  is  its  capacity  of  reacting  to  changes 
in  its  environment  by  changes  in  the  equilibrium 
of  its  matter  and  its  energy."  It  is  not  the  capac- 
ity of  evolving  a  great  amount  of  energy  upon 
slight  stimulus.  Such  are  only  special  cases,  e.  g., 
springs,  elastic,  often  stimuli  causes  decreases  in 
production  of  energy.  The  general  action  of  all 


290          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

stimuli  upon  living  substance  consists  in  a  change 
of  spontaneous  vital  phenomena.  There  are  two 
kinds  of  changes;  quantitative  and  qualitative, 
e.  g.,  qualitative  where  cell  forms  a  substance 
wholly  foreign  substances  to  its  normal  life. 

To  sum  up:  (1)  Every  change  in  the  exter- 
nal vital  conditions  of  an  organism  constitutes  a 
stimulus.  (2)  Every  augmentation  of  a  vital 
phenomenon,  either  of  one  or  of  all,  constitutes 
excitation.  (3)  Every  diminution  of  a  vital  phe- 
nomenon, either  of  one  or  all,  constitutes  depres- 
sion. (4)  The  action  of  stimuli  can  consist  of 
excitation  or  depression. 

Let  us  now  consider  beginning  with  the  Actions 
of  the  Various  Stimuli.  The  Actions  of  Chemical 
Stimuli  include  (a)  the  phenomena  of  excitation. 
In  general,  the  more  food  ingested,  the  more  is 
metabolism  hastened.  118  grams  proteid  needed 
to  maintain  nitrogenous  equilibrium  in  man; 
more  than  this  increases  both  assimilation  and 
dissimilation  phases  of  metabolism.  Increase  of 
food  brings  also  increase  of  form,  fattening.  In- 
crease of  transformation  of  energy — activity,  es- 
pecially contractions.  Some  organisms  produce 
more  light,  (b)  the  Phenomena  of  Depression 
are  notable  as  regards  narcotics  and  anaesthetics, 
especially.  They  depress  metabolism,  form 
changes,  e.  g.,  all  division,  and  transformations 
of  energy,  and  turquescence,  also  contraction 
movements,  in  both  smooth  and  cross  striated 
muscles. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          291 

Next  consider  the  Actions  of  Mechanical  Stimu- 
li, i.  e.,  of  changes  in  pressure  relations,  (a) 
The  Phenomena  of  Excitation.  The  mechanical 
stimuli  act  on  the  metabolic  process  to  produce 
substance,  secretion,  e.  g.,  foreign  body  in  mouth, 
produces  saliva.  No  such  effort  was  known  in 
form  changes,  growth  and  cell  division.  There 
are  positive  effects  upon  transformation  of  en- 
ergy, e.  g.,  sensitive  plant.  There  are  also  pseu- 
dopods  with  and  "granulate"  upon  slight  to 
greater  touch.  Mechanical  stimulation  increases 
flagellate  motion.  Increases  muscular  motion.  In- 
creases production  of  light.  (Perhaps  this  because 
the  C.  N.  S.  maintains  a  general  temperature, 
which  temperature  controls  metabolism;  when, 
there  in  winter  the  temperature  has  to  be  in- 
creased in  the  body,  the  metabolism  also  in- 
creases.) The  form  changes.  Reproduction 
(Positive  Results).  Protoplasmic  movements  in- 
crease with  warmth.  Ciliary  motions  also.  Mus- 
cles contract  with  rising  temperature.  Rising 
temperatures  augment  vital  processes,  (b)  The 
phenomena  of  Depression  include  falling  tempera- 
tures which  decrease  vital  phenomena.  Cold  rigor 
the  last  stage  of  safety  in  temperature  (cold). 
Heat  rigor  the  last  stage  of  safety  in  temperature 
(warm). 

Now  consider  the  Actions  of  Photic  Stimuli. 
Photic  meaning  the  chemical,  not  the  thermal 
effect.  In  higher  creatures  only  the  eye  or  eye- 
spots  are  at  all  sensitive  to  these  Photic  effects. 


292          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

But  a  "destructively  luminous"  light  will  kill  cells 
all  over  the  body.  ( From  Absolute  Darkness 
(zero  stimulation)  up.) 

(a)  As  regards  the  Phenomena  of  Excitation, 
it  may  be  safd  that  the  whole  organic  world  ulti- 
mately depends  upon  the  metabolic  action  of  light. 
Red  rays  of  light  the  most  helpful  to  assimila- 
tion.     No    effects    upon    form    changes    known. 
Positive  effects  upon  changes  of  Energy.     Blue 
and  violet  rays  especially  noted  for  photic  efforts. 
Latent  period  here  also  noted  1-2  seconds. 

(b)  The   Phenomena   of   Depression   include 
very  few  depressing  effects  of  light. 

(5)  When  we  come  to  consider  the  actions  of 
electrical  stimuli,  we  note  there  is  no  special  or- 
gan for  electric  stimulation,  and  yet  this  force 
stimulates  all  tissue;  the  ease  of  grading  the 
stimulation  makes  its  use  very  valuable. 

(a)  The  Phenomena  of  Excitation;  no  real 
"adaptation  to  electric  stimulus,  all  degrees  of 
stimulation  really  affect  in  some  way,  other  than 
by  muscular  contraction.  Electrotomus  (p.  414) . 
No  general  law  of  polar  excitation  can  be  formed ; 
in  some  organisms  the  contraction  is  effected  by 
making  at  the  anode  in  others  by  breaking  at  the 
anode  and  similarly  with  making  and  breaking 
at  the  cathode.  Summation  effects:  i.  e.,  dis- 
continuous tetanic  contraction,  turquescence  as 
well  as  movements  effected  by  electricity.  Mus- 
cle excited  to  activity  by  every  known  stimulus 
consumes  more  oxygen  than  resting  muscles,  it 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          293 

consumes  more  glycogen  stored  in  it,  and  pro- 
duces more  carbonic  acid. 

(b)  As  regards  the  phenomena,  Depression, 
Electric  stimulation,  produced  long  and  intensely 
produces  depression.  Galvanic  Rigor. 

So  much  for  Verworn  on  Relation  of  Stimuli  to 
Vital  Condition.  Now  comes  B.  The  Directive 
effects  of  Unilateral  Stimulation,  i.  e.,  attraction 
and  repulsion  effects  (like  magnetism).  Only  un- 
symmetrical  stimulation  can  control  the  direction 
of  motion. 

Under  this  head  we  have  (1)  Chemotaxis,  posi- 
tive and  negative.  Bacteria  excrete  toxins ;  these 
attract  the  leucocytes.  Pus  filled  tube  and  rab- 
bits body  (leucocytes).  Spermatozoon  seeks  the 
ovum  chemotactically.  Chemotactic  effects  of 
Paramacium.  We  act  similarly  toward  our  food. 
(Odor,  taste,  etc.)  and  our  air  supply. 

2.  Under  Barotaxis  we  shall  consider  Pressure 
Relations,  positive  and  negative.  Thigmotaxis, 
the  more  or  less  strong  contact  of  living  substance 
with  more  solid  bodies,  i.  e.,  a  feeble  contact  may 
call  out  positive  stigmo  taxis,  or  strong  contact 
and  negative.  Thigmotaxis  in  creeping  plants 
and  climbers.  Also  in  crods  of  paramaecia  and 
leucocytes  if  organisms  crowded  together  produce, 
say  carbonic  acid,  and  chemotaxis  may  result. 
(2)  Rheotaxis  to  currents,  say  of  water.  Cases 
of  this  are  fishes  going  upstream  to  spawn,  or 
spermatozoa  entering  uterus  meet  a  current  of 
mucous  liquid  flowing  toward  them.  The  cilia 


294          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

lining  the  uterus  have  a  direction  of  stroke  toward 
the  mouth,  and  hence  produce  a  current  toward 
the  outside. 

(3)  In  Geotaxis,  the  adjustment  is  to  gravity, 
to  the  center  of  the  earth.  The  growth  of  roots 
of  plants  are  an  example.  Positive  and  negative. 
Roots  and  stems  also  transverse  geotaxis  in  lat- 
eral branches.  The  organisms,  however,  come  to 
rest  at  top  of  a  long  tube  of  liquid  because  the 
pressure  (hydrostatic)  at  the  bottom  is  too  great, 
i.  e.,  they  show  negative  geotaxis  because  of  nega- 
tive rheotaxis.  Geotaxis  is  a  special  case  of  baro- 
taxis. 

(3)  In  Phototaxis  all  bars  of  light  diminish  in 
intensity  the  farther  we  get  from  this  source, 
ideal  conditions  for  unilateral  stimulation  are  pro- 
vided.   Sunflowers,  potato  tubers.    May  flies  are 
all  cases  in  point,  seeking  a  "Place  in  the  Sun." 
Blue  and  Violet  rays  are  better  than  Red  for  caus- 
ing phototaxis.     The  direction  of  the  rays  is  im- 
portant. 

(4)  Thermotaxis   is   illustrated   in   Amoeba. 
Amoeba    aren't    phototactic,    but    thermotactic. 
Other  cases  are  turtles  and  millionaires  at  Palm 
Beach,  we  and  our  houses,  etc. 

(5)  Galvanotaxis  looks  exactly  like  magnet- 
ism.    Paranoecia  collect  at  Kathode.     Some  or- 
ganisms anodically,  others  kathodically,  galvano- 
tactic,  others  still  turn  their  axes  in  right  angle 
to  direction  of  current,  and  remain  there  nicely 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          295 

spaced  but  twitching,  i.  e.,  transversely  Galvano- 
tactic. 

Lastly  we  may  discuss  C.  The  Phenomena  of 
Exhaustion,  considering  first  the  (1)  Fatigue  and 
Exhaustion. 

Changes  in  muscle  and  nerve  cells  occur. 
"Gymnasts"  fewer  is  to  be  noted.  Positive  (ac- 
cumulation of  poisons)  and  negative  (disintegra- 
tion of  muscle  substance)  effects  of  fatigue  are 
to  be  distinguished. 

(2)  Excitation  and  depression  both  may  fol- 
low upon  continued  increase  of  stimulation.    But 
diminishing  vital  conditions  depress  without  first 
exciting. 

(3)  Death  by  over  Stimulation  may  occur. 
Verworn  considers  that  life  is  a  series  of  specific 

natural  changes. 

On  the  sex  instinct,  Loeb  says: 

"Mating  in  certain  fish,  like  Fundulus,  consist 
in  the  male  pressing  that  part  of  its  body  which 
contains  the  opening  of  the  sperm  duct  against 
the  corresponding  part  of  the  female  body.  The 
latter  responds  by  pressing  back,  and  the  pres- 
sure of  the  body  is  maintained  by  both  sexes 
thru  motions  of  the  tail.  During  this  mutual 
pressure  or  friction  both  sexes  shed  their  sexual 
cells,  sperm  and  eggs,  into  the  water,  and  since 
the  openings  of  the  cloaca  of  the  male  and  female, 
through  which  the  sex  cells  are  shed,  are  brought 
almost  in  contact  with  each  other,  sperm  and  eggs 
mix  at  the  moment  they  are  shed.  This  act  of 


296          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

mating  is  due  to  a  stereotropism  which  exists 
only  during  the  spawning  season  and  which  is 
supposedly  due  to  certain  hormones  existing  at 
this  time  in  the  animal.  The  existence  of  such 
hormones  is  also  indicated  by  certain  colorations 
which  develop  and  exist  in  the  male  during  this 
period.  The  stereotropism  is  to  some  extent  spe- 
cific since  it  is  exhibited  by  the  contact  between 
the  two  sexes.  The  specificity  of  this  stereo- 
tropism is  of  importance  and  needs  further  ex- 
perimental analysis,  but  that  it  is  in  reality  a  type 
of  common  stereotropism  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  if  during  the  spawning  season  we  keep 
females  isolated  from  males  in  an  aquarium  the 
females  will  go  thru  the  motions  of  mating 
and  shed  the  eggs  every  time  they  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  glass  walls  of  the  aquarium. 

"Professor  Whitman  told  the  writer  that  male 
pigeons  when  kept  in  isolation  will  try  to  go 
thru  the  motions  of  mating  with  any  solid  object 
in  their  field  of  vision,  e.g.,  glass  bottles,  and 
even  with  objects  which  give  only  the  optical  im- 
pression of  being  solid,  namely,  their  own  sha- 
dow on  the  ground. . . . 

"V.  L.  Kellogg  has  made  observations  which 
show,  that  the  nuptial  flight  in  bees  is  also  due 
to  an  outburst  of  positive  heliotropism  as  in  the 
ant.  .  .  .ss 

Also, 

"Whitman  took  the   eggs    or   young    of   wild 


32Loeb   Tropisms — pp.    157-158. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          297 

species,  giving  them  to  the  domestic  ring-dove 
to  foster,  with  the  result,  that  the  young 
reared  by  the  ring-doves  ever  after  associated 
with  ring-doves  and  tried  to  mate  with  them. 
Passenger  pigeons  when  reared  by  ring-doves  re- 
fuse to  mate  with  their  own  species  but  mate 
with  the  species  of  the  foster  parents.539  This 
shows  incidentally  that  racial  antagonism  is  not 
inherited  but  acquired. 

"We  have  mentioned  the  fact  that  the  mating 
instinct  is  determined  by  tropisms  aroused  by 
specific  internal  secretions,  and  that  in  isolated 
male  pigeons  any  solid  body  can  arouse  the  mat- 
ing reaction.  Craig"'40  raised  male  pigeons  in 
isolation  so  that  they  never  came  in  contact  with 
other  pigeons  until  they  were  adult.  One  pigeon 
was  hatched  in  July  and  isolated  in  August. 

"  'Throughout  the  autumn  and  early  winter 
this  bird  cooed  very  little.  But  about  the  first  of 
February  there  began  a  remarkable  development 
of  voice  and  social  behavior.  The  dove  was  kept 
in  a  room  where  several  men  were  at  work,  and 
he  directed  his  display  behavior  toward  these 
men  just  as  if  they  belonged  to  his  own  species. 
Each  time  I  put  food  in  his  cage  he  became  great- 
ly excited,  charging  up  and  down  the  cage, 
bowing-and-cooing  to  me,  and  pecking  my  hand 
whenever  it  came  within  his  cage.  From  that 
day  until  the  day  of  his  death,  Jack  continued  to 
react  in  this  social  manner  to  human  beings.  He 
would  bow-and-coo  to  me  at  a  distance,  or  to  my 


298          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

face  when  near  the  cage;  but  he  paid  greatest 
attention  to  the  hand — naturally  so,  because  it 
was  the  only  part  with  which  he  daily  came  into 
direct  contact.  He  treated  the  hand  much  as  if 
it  were  a  living  bird.  Not  only  were  his  own  ac- 
tivities directed  toward  the  hand  as  if  it  were  a 
bird,  but  he  received  treatment  by  the  hand  in 
the  same  spirit.  The  hand  could  stroke  him, 
preen  his  neck,  even  pull  the  feathers  sharply, 
Jack  had  absolutely  no  fear,  but  ran  to  the  hand 
to  be  stroked  or  teased,  showing  the  joy  that  all 
doves  show  in  the  attentions  of  their  compan- 
ions.34 .... 

"When  this  pigeon  was  almost  a  year  old  it 
was  put  into  a  cage  with  a  female  pigeon,  but 
although  the  female  aroused  the  sexual  instinct 
of  the  formerly  isolated  male  the  latter  did  not 
mate  with  her,  but  mated  with  the  hand  of  his 
attendant  when  the  hand  was  put  into  the  cage, 
and  this  continued  throughout  the  season.  Thus 
the  memory  images  acquired  by  the  bird  at  an 
impressionable  age  and  period  perverted  its  sexual 
tropisms.35 

"The  biologic  utility  of  sex  is,  of  course,  in  the 
propagation  of  the  race.  From  a  cell  one  quarter 
inch  in  diameter  develops  the  human  being  who  is 
to  inherit,  according  to  strict  biological  laws, 
the  fundamental  traits  bequeathed  by  his  par- 
ents. Galton's  book  on  Ancestral  Heredity,  in 


"Idem,    p.    168. 
•""•Idem,    p.    169. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          299 

1889,  expressed  the  proportion  of  traits  derived 
from  the  two  parents  as  one-half,  from  the  four 
grand-parents  as  one-fourth,  etc.  This  has  how- 
ever, been  tested  (by  Castle  especially)  and  found 
to  be  too  rough  an  approximation  to  be  useful. 

Mendel  formulated  a  law  in  1886  which  in  1900 
was  rediscovered  by  De  Vries,  Com,  and  Sher- 
mont.  His  concept  was  of  unit  characters — e.  g., 
in  peas,  tallness  and  shortness.  Also  the  con- 
cept of  Dominant  and  Recessive  Characteristics. 

But  we  should  beware  of  too  ready  reference 
to  "heredity"  as  an  "explanation"  of  everything. 
Like  "the  unconscious"  it  is  too  easy  a  way  out 
of  difficulties. 

It  used  to  be  thought  that  even  traits  which 
a  person  acquired  after  his  birth  could  be  trans- 
mitted to  offspring.  Now,  thanks  to  De  Vries 
and  others,  this  idea,  like  "prenatal  influence" 
has  been  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  abandoned 
theories. 

Castle36  tells  how  a  female  albino  guinea  pig 
just  at  sexual  maturity  was  by  an  operation  de- 
prived of  its  ovaries.  There  were  introduced  into 
her  body  the  ovaries  of  a  young  black  female 
guinea  pig  not  yet  sexually  mature,  aged  three 
weeks.  The  grafted  animal  now  mated  with  a 
male  albino  and  produced  three  litters  of  young, 
of  which  six  individuals  were  all  black,  etc.  This 
certainly  is  strong  evidence  that  it  is  not  the  ani- 


'"Castle — Genetics    &    Eugenics,    p.    24. 


300          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

mal  as  a  whole,  but  essentially  the  germ  cells 
which  determine  inheritance. 

A  little  booklet  on  the  Birth  Control  Movement"7 
says,  "In  our  modern  city  life,  with  its  extremes 
of  poverty  and  riches,  large  families  are  frequent- 
ly a  menace,  not  only  to  their  members,  but  to  the 
community  at  large.  Statistics  collected  by  physi- 
cians and  social  investigators  show  that  the  in- 
fant mortality  in  large  families  is  enormously 
greater  in  proportion  than  in  small.  Dr.  Alice 
Hamilton,  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Medicine  for  May,  1910,  reports  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  families  of  1,600  wage  earners. 
Deaths  per  thousand  births,  in  families  of 
4  children  and  less,  averaged 118 

6  children 267 

7  children 280 

8  children 291 

9  children  and  more 303 

"In  other  words,  the  death  rate  in  families  of 

eight  and  more  is  two  and  one-half  times  that  of 
families  of  four  children  and  under. 

"An  examination  of  statistics  shows  the  injuri- 
ous effect  not  only  on  the  mother,  but  on  the  chil- 
dren, when  a  woman  bears  her  babies  in  too  rapid 
succession.  Motherhood  is  not  a  universal  ex- 
perience. That  half  of  the  human  race  which 
can  never  be  called  upon  to  experience  the  pains 
of  child-birth  has  come  to  accept  them  very  com- 
placently, like  the  growing  pains  of  childhood. 


*7P.   121.     Published  by  committee  of  one  hundred,   1917. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          301 

It  gives  us  a  start  to  come  upon  the  figures  re- 
cently collected  by  Dr.  Grace  L.  Meigs,  of  the 
Government  Children's  Bureau  in  Washington, 
D.  C.  She  finds  that,  by  official  reports,  more 
than  15,000  mothers  die  each  year  in  this  country 
from  conditions  related  to  child-birth.  During 
the  year  1913  more  women  between  the  ages  of 
15  and  44  years  died  in  child-birth  than  from  any 
other  cause  except  tuberculosis,  and  the  mortal- 
ity was  three  times  that  of  typhoid  fever.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  know  in  how  many  cases 
the  physical  condition  of  these  women  was  such 
that  they  should  never  have  been  allowed  to  be- 
come pregnant,  and  how  many  of  them  had  lost 
their  vitality  and  power  or  resistance  thru  too 
frequent  child-bearing. 

"As  for  the  effects  on  children  born  in  such 
rapid  succession,  R.  J.  Ewart,  an  English  econ- 
omist, reports  on  his  study  of  an  English  manu- 
facturing town,  that  children  born  at  intervals 
of  less  than  two  years  after  the  birth  of  the 
previous  child,  remain  notably  defective,  even  at 
the  age  of  six,  both  as  regards  intelligence  and 
physical  development.  When  compared  with 
children  born  at  a  longer  interval,  and  with  first- 
born children,  they  are,  on  the  average,  three 
inches  shorter  and  three  pounds  lighter.  F.  Boas, 
in  a  government  report  for  1911  on  'Changes  in 
Bodily  Form  of  Descendants  of  Immigrants', 
sums  up :  'The  physical  development  of  children, 


302          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

as  measured  by  stature,  is  the  better,  the  smaller 
the  family.' 

"These  statistics  show  only  the  obvious  physical 
results  of  too  frequent  child-bearing.  But  mother- 
hood has  come  to  mean  a  good  deal  more  than 
mere  physical  bearing  of  infants.  It  may  include 
the  stimulus  and  inspiration  of  companionship 
with  a  woman  of  broad  interests  and  normally 
rounded  life.  We  all  know  exceptional  cases  of 
large  families,  where  the  mother  exercised  a 
powerful  influence  over  all  her  flock.  But  such 
cases  require  extraordinary  physical  vitality  on 
the  part  of  the  mother,  and  usually  ample  means 
to  supply  a  staff  of  nurses.  In  the  average  case, 
a  baby  a  year  means  that  the  older  ones  must  be 
neglected,  turned  out  on  the  streets  to  play,  and 
deprived  of  all  the  love  and  influence  which  the 
mother  yearns  to  give  if  she  only  had  the  time. 

"Many  men  and  women  who  practice  birth 
control  themselves  have  an  idea  that  'the  masses 
of  the  people'  do  not  want  this  information,  and 
would  not  take  the  trouble  to  use  it  if  they  had 
it.  They  might  be  startled  to  see  the  flood  of  let- 
ters which  pours  in  upon  nearly  every  woman 
connected  with  the  birth  control  movement.  As 
soon  as  the  name  and  address  of  a  woman  inter- 
ested in  birth  control  is  given  in  the  newspapers, 
she  begins  to  receive  these  letters.  They  come 
from  every  state  in  the  Union  and  from  both 
fathers  and  mothers.  Some  bear  the  earmarks  of 
education  and  culture.  Many  are  misspelled,  and 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          303 

laboriously  scrawled.  Thru  them  all  runs  a  pa- 
thetic eagerness  for  help  out  of  the  baffling  diffi- 
culties against  which  these  men  and  women  are 
struggling." 

Connecticut. 
"Dear  Madam: 

"My  daughter-in-law  is  a  very  frail  little  wo- 
man. She  has  brought  eleven  children  into  the 
world.  The  last  four  were  still-born.  The  doctor 
says  she  has  not  vitality  enough  ever  to  bring 
another  living  child  into  the  world.  If  you  will 
kindly  give  information  that  will  prevent  any 
more  conception,  you  will  save  her  life,  so  that 
she  may  rear  those  who  are  still  living." 

Montana. 
"Dear  Madam: 

"I  am  taking  the  liberty  of  asking  if  you  would 
not  be  so  kind  as  to  give  me  information  on  birth 
control.  My  husband  is  making  $16  per  week, 
and  we  have  had  four  children  in  as  many  years. 
Two  are  living,  another  is  expected  soon.  Now 
before  the  birth  of  each  child  I  have  to  take  to 
my  bed  for  about  six  weeks,  on  account  of  kidney 
trouble,  and  of  course  this  makes  it  very  ex- 
pensive, as  well  as  dangerous.  It  just  keeps  us 
in  debt  all  the  time,  and  this  is  so  discouraging. 
We  are  both  young  and  hard  working;  I  have 
even  taken  washing  to  help  out.  I  don't  mind 
having  children,  if  there  is  plenty  to  provide  with. 
But  on  account  of  the  high  cost  of  living,  and  also 
the  danger  on  account  of  my  kidneys,  I  would 


304          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

like  to  stop  for  a  while,  until  we  get  on  our  feet, 
anyway." 

"It  is  difficult  and  humiliating,  in  the  face  of 
such  appeals,  to  have  to  write  back  with  cold 
propriety,  that  it  is  against  the  law  to  give  such 
information,  and  that  (although  we  practice  it 
ourselves)  we  may  not  share  it,  but  can  only  work 
for  the  repeal  of  such  laws. 

"The  discussion  of  large  families  brings  us  to 
the  subject  of  race  suicide.  This  is  a  bugaboo 
with  which  a  certain  school  of  alarmists  try  to 
terrorize  us.  While  birth-control  information 
does  result  in  lowering  the  birth  rate,  it  also,  and 
simultaneously  so,  lowers  the  infant  mortality, 
that  the  result  is  frequently  a  net  increase  of 
population. 

"In  1881,  when  birth-control  clinics  were 
started  in  Holland,  its  three  principal  cities 
showed  a  birth  rate  of  33.7  per  thousand.  In  1912 
the  birth  rate  had  dropped  to  25.3.  The  general 
death  rate,  however,  had  dropped  in  the  same 
period  from  24.2  to  11.1  per  thousand,  so  that  the 
net  change  was  an  increase  in  population.  (These 
figures  are  quoted  from  an  article  by  Dr. 
Adolphus  Knopf,  the  tuberculosis  expert,  endors- 
ing birth  control  in  The  Survey  for  November  18, 
1916.) 

"It  is  difficult  to  take  this  talk  of  race  suicide 
seriously  when  one  remembers  the  deep,  strong 
passions  with  which  women  and  men  long  for 
Children.  Physicians  constantly  meet  in  their 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          305 

practice  women  who  have  deliberately  faced  Cae- 
sarian sections,  four  and  five  times,  for  the  sake 
of  having  a  family.  The  fact  that  they  were 
physically  unable  to  bear  a  child  normally  did  not 
daunt  them  for  an  instant.  Love  of  children,  and 
especially  love  of  one's  very  own,  the  strong, 
fierce  power  of  maternal  and  paternal  instinct,  is 
too  deep-seated  for  it  to  be  possible  that  the  race 
will  die  out  because  of  the  spread  of  this  informa- 
tion. 

Another  objection  to  birth  control  is  based  on 
its  supposedly  injurious  effects.  No  doubt  harm- 
ful methods  have  been  used,  but  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  they  should  be,  as  absolutely  harmless 
methods  are  known.  Numerous  medical  authori- 
ties testify  to  this  fact,  that  with  the  proper  use 
of  preventive  measures,  there  is  no  possible  in- 
jury. Dr.  J.  Rutger  of  The  Hague,  in  his  book 
on  "Race  Improvement,"  writes: 

"There  is  but  one  method  of  saving  women 
from  the  risk  of  gynaecological  diseases  depend- 
ing on  infection,  and  that  is  cleanliness.  Now 
cleanliness  is  the  most  essential  feature  in  the  ap- 
lication  of  preventive  means.  Preventing  infec- 
tion and  preventing  fecundation  are  in  principle 
parallel  problems.  And  Dr.  William  J.  Robinson, 
in  'Practical  Eugenics/  writes: 

"Another  argument  is  that  the  use  of  the 
means  of  prevention  renders  a  woman  sterile,  so 
that  when  she  afterwards  wants  to  have  children 
she  cannot  do  so.  This  is  absolutely  and  unquali- 


306          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

fiedly  untrue.  Here  is  again  confusion  between 
prevention  and  abortion.  It  is  true  that  repeat- 
edly performed  abortions  may  render  a  woman 
sterile  on  account  of  the  inflammations  and  in- 
fections that  abortions  often  set  up.  But  properly 
used  means  of  contraception  have  no  such  effect. 
Thousands  and  thousands  of  women  use  these 
means  as  long  as  they  do  not  want  to  have  any 
children;  when  they  want  a  child,  they  discon- 
tinue their  use  and  very  soon  afterward  become 
impregnated." 

"Statistics  are  sometimes  quoted  to  show  an  in- 
crease of  cancer  and  sterility,  attributed  to  birth- 
control  methods.  But  many  doctors  class  abor- 
tions and  the  prevention  of  conception  together. 
In  giving  statistics  for  the  evils  resulting  from 
one,  they  include  the  other.  No  one  argues  that 
abortions  are  not  injurious.  They  are.  The  de- 
sire to  prevent  the  present  widespread  practice 
of  abortions  with  their  injurious  after-effects  is 
one  of  the  important  arguments  for  birth  con- 
trol. It  is,  therefore,  scarcely  fair  to  use  as  an 
argument  against  birth  control  the  injurious  ef- 
fects of  abortions.  It  is  like  grouping  together 
the  mortality  rate  for  pneumonia  and  sprained 
ankles,  and  arguing  that  sprained  ankles  are  a 
fatal  disease. 

"Havelock  Ellis,  in  his  'Essays  in  War  Times,' 
meets  this  objection.  Granting,  for  the  sake  of 
argument,  that  there  are  injurious  effects,  he 
points  out  that  many  of  the  changes  which  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          307 

process  of  evolution  has  brought  about  have  had 
harmful  as  well  as  beneficial  results.  Raising 
mankind  from  all  fours  to  walk  about  on  two  feet 
has  produced  many  disorders.  Most  of  the  back- 
aches and  internal  ailments  from  which  women 
suffer  are  due  to  the  disarrangement  of  their  or- 
gans caused  by  standing  up.  Yet  no  doctor 
makes  this  an  argument  for  returning  to  all 
fours.  Clothes  are  another  example.  All  the  ani- 
mals are  born  with  whatever  covering  they  need 
— fur,  feathers  and  hairy  hides.  Man  alone  has 
devised  an  artificial  covering  for  himself.  In  its 
train  have  come  many  diseases.  Tuberculosis, 
pneumonia,  grippe  and  colds  are  chiefly  due  to  our 
susceptibility  to  draughts  and  cold,  brought  on 
by  wearing  clothes.  Yet  far  from  attempting  to 
return  to  the  status  quo  ante,  we  have  even  made 
it  illegal  for  a  man  to  try  to  go  without  clothes." 

From  here  on  the  discussion  becomes  distinctly 
social  in  its  significance.  Personally,  we  incline 
to  go  much  farther  than  most  of  the  advocates 
of  birth  control,  and  to  believe,  with  the  neomal- 
thusians,  that  an  actual  diminution  of  population 
is  desirable.  Herbert  Quick  in  his  On  Board  the 
Good  Ship  Earth,  Shows  the  danger  from  what 
he  calls  "the  Hindu  Peril." 

"India  contains40  1,766,000  square  miles,  while 
the  United  States  has  more  than  three  millions. 
But  while  we  have  less  than  a  hundred  millions 


"Herbert   Quick,   On   Board  the  Good   Ship   Earth,   pp.    179-182. 


308          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

of  people,  British  India  has  300,000,000,  (244,- 
361,056  in  1901). 

"These  300,000,000  fellow  passengers  of  ours 
are  very  poor,  and  very  ignorant  and  unenlight- 
ened. Therefore  they  multiply  rapidly.  Wher- 
ever there  is  found  on  the  good  ship  Earth  a  peo- 
ple which  has  a  very  high  birthrate,  the  masses 
will  be  found  living  on  a  low  intellectual  plane, 
on  a  low  plane  of  prosperity,  or  both.  The  Hin- 
dus— meaning  all  the  Indian  peoples — are  as  far 
as  the  masses  are  concerned,  not  only  poor  beyond 
the  conception  of  an  American,  but  they  are 
plunged  into  an  intellectual  slavery  that  is  appall- 
ing. Therefore  they  multiply  very  rapidly. 

"In  the  absence  of  the  accepted  checks  on  popu- 
lation— war,  pestilence  and  famine — and  in  the 
absence  of  the  check  which  must  come  in  to  pre- 
vent those  by  checking  multiplication — the  ex- 
piration of  poverty  and  the  attainment  of  high 
intellectual  life — the  people  of  India  will  at  the 
rate  with  which  their  population  has  grown  since 
first  it  was  computed,  amount  in  1950  to  450,000,- 
000 ;  in  A.  D.  2000  it  will  be  675,000,000 ;  in  A.  D. 
2050  it  will  be  1,012,500,000;  and  in  A.  D.  2100 
it  will  be  1,518,750,000. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  room  in  their  present 
habitat  for  such  swarms.  There  are  many  unused 
natural  opportunities  in  their  country.  There  are 
coal,  iron,  water-power  and  irrigable  lands;  but 
even  at  the  present  rate  of  increase  all  these  op- 
portunities will  be  overtaxed  in  a  hundred  years. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          309 

The  Hindus  are  robbed  by  taxation,  and  exploited 
by  landlordism  and  monopoly,  but  with  a  perfect 
system  of  distribution  of  wealth,  if  such  were  to 
be  hoped  for,  multiplying  as  they  are  doing,  pov- 
erty would  overtake  them  thru  sheer  swarming — 
in  the  absence  of  the  enlightenment  which  dimin- 
ishes progeny. 

"For  their  increase  does  not  show  their  birth- 
rate. War  has  been  forbidden  them  by  the  Roman 
peace  of  the  British  rule.  But  still  their  ignor- 
ance and  squalor,  their  neglect  of  sanitation  and 
supineness  under  disease  keeps  down  the  multi- 
plying hordes.  And  famine  descends  upon  them 
whenever  rain  fails  to  come  with  the  southwest 
wind  which  is  called  a  monsoon — the  rain-bringer 
for  the  Hindus.  The  government  puts  aside  some 
millions  of  rupees  every  year  as  a  famine-insur- 
ance fund  to  keep  the  people  from  starving  in 
years  of  drought ;  but  this  can  do  no  good.  More 
people  will  live  over  this  famine  and  therefore 
there  will  be  more  mouths  to  feed  when  the  next 
famine  comes.  The  cause  of  famines  in  India  is 
not  drought,  but  too  many  people  and  bad  distri- 
bution of  wealth.  And  if  the  distribution  be  rem- 
edied the  people  will  at  once  multiply  to  take  up 
the  slack  liberated  by  better  institutions.  The 
situation  is  perfectly  hopeless  in  the  absence  of 
enlightenment  and  the  adoption  of  sane  beliefs. 
For  population  depends  more  on  beliefs  than  on 
food. 


310          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

However,  we  resume  our  quotations  from  the 
pamphlet  on  Birth  Control41 

"Perhaps  the  most  important  and  generally 
quoted  argument  against  birth  control  is  the  fear 
expressed  that  it  would  lead  to  an  increase  of  im- 
morality among  young  women.  This  presupposes 
a  low  standard  of  morality  among  young  girls. 
Most  of  us  believe  that  a  positive  idealism,  rather 
than  a  negative  fear  of  consequences,  is  the  re- 
straining influence  on  most  of  our  young  women. 
We  are  rapidly  growing  away  from  a  civilization 
which  undertakes  to  preserve  the  chastity  of 
young  women  by  actual  physical  compulsion.  In 
Spanish  and  South  American  countries,  young 
girls  are  forcibly  kept  in  their  rooms  by  close 
surveillance  and  iron  bars  in  their  windows.  In 
respectable  society,  no  young  woman  is  allowed 
to  be  alone  with  a  man  for  an  instant;  even  in 
her  own  home,  and  tho  he  may  be  marrying  her 
the  next  day. 

"Gradually  society  is  developing  a  different  atti- 
tude toward  women.  We  have  come  to  realize 
that  a  passive  virtue,  enforced  by  lack  of  oppor- 
tunity to  do  otherwise,  is  not  as  valuable  to  so- 
ciety, nor  to  the  individual,  as  the  building  up 
of  character,  which,  having  the  choice  between 
good  and  evil,  chooses  wisely.  In  the  last  century, 
the  convention  requiring  a  chaperon  for  an  un- 
married girl  at  all  times  has  been  tremendously 
relaxed.  Sending  girls  away  to  college,  and  into 


"Birth   Control,    pp.   30-36. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  311 

the  big  cities  to  work,  has  released  them  from  all 
actual  physical  restraints.  Yet  we  do  not  feel 
that  our  womanhood  is  suffering  from  the  change. 
Rather  it  is  more  wholesome  and  self-respecting 
than  ever  before.  Similarly,  we  believe  that  the 
more  general  knowledge  of  birth-control  informa- 
tion will  by  no  means  result  in  a  general  lowering 
of  moral  standards. 

"The  probability  that  it  will  work  harm  in  in- 
dividual cases  is  scarcely  an  argument  against 
making  the  information  legitimately  available. 

"Railways,  street  cars,  automobiles,  many  of 
the  most  important  elements  of  modern  life  take 
an  enormous  number  of  lives  every  year.  From 
the  point  of  view  of  the  woman  whose  husband 
has  been  run  over  and  killed  by  a  speeding  auto- 
mobile, it  might  seem  desirable  to  legislate  the 
motor  car  out  of  existence.  But  society  never  has 
and  never  can  be  governed  by  the  consideration  of 
individual  cases. 

"Balanced  against  the  harm  of  knowledge  of 
contraceptive  measures  may  do  to  the  individual 
girl  are  the  hundred  thousands  of  married  men 
and  women  all  over  this  country  whose  married 
life  is  marred  and  haunted  by  lack  of  this  knowl- 
edge. Women  in  delicate  health,  women  with  dis- 
eases which  make  pregnancy  almost  fatal,  wives 
of  small-salaried  men  whose  incomes  are  insuffi- 
cient to  care  for  their  present  families — to  all 
these  women  and  their  husbands,  fear  of  preg- 
nancy is  an  ever-menacing,  everhaunting  night- 


312          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

mare.  Officials  of  the  various  courts  of  domestic 
relations  say  that  lack  of  response  and  accord  in 
the  marital  relation  is  responsible  for  a  tremen- 
dous number  of  divorces  and  unhappy  marriages. 
Remove  this  fear  of  an  unwelcome  child  from 
the  woman's  heart,  and  it  seems  reasonable  to 
believe  that  it  would  go  far  toward  adjusting 
many  of  these  tangled  and  unhappy  relationships. 

"The  suggestion  that  self-control  would  meet 
the  difficulty  does  not  seem  a  practical  solution. 
To  many  men  and  women  the  marital  relation  is 
beautiful  and  sacred,  and  by  no  means  to  be  apolo- 
gized for.  They  feel  that  it  would  be  unnatural 
and  wrong  to  attempt  to  eliminate  its  inspiring 
and  uplifting  influence  from  married  life,  except 
for  the  rare  occasions  when  procreation  is  de- 
sired. Recent  studies  made  by  Freud,  Jung,  and 
other  great  specialists  in  nervous  troubles  have 
called  attention  to  the  pathological  conditions 
frequently  induced  by  maladjustments  in  the 
sexual  relationship.  Celibacy  is  generally  recog- 
nized as  an  abnormal  and  incomplete  mode  of  life. 
It  is  the  more  anomalous  when  demanded  of  a 
man  and  woman  loving  each  other,  and  living 
together  in  the  affectionate  intimacy  of  married 
life. 

"Turning  to  the  arguments  for  birth  control 
in  addition  to  those  already  implied,  the  underly- 
ing principles  involve  several  fundamental  issues. 

"One  of  the  most  convincing  arguments  for 
family  limitation  is  its  beneficial  results  in  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          313 

countries  where  it  has  been  tried.  Government 
statistics  from  these  countries  record  a  tendency 
to  earlier  marriages.  These  are  made  possible 
because  the  young  couples  feel  free  to  marry  at 
once,  instead  of  having  to  wait  until  the  man  can 
earn  enough  to  support  an  unlimited  succession 
of  babies.  Early  marriages  are  the  most  effective 
possible  means  of  reducing  prostitution  and 
venereal  disease,  as  well  as  illegitimacy  and  abor- 
tion. 

"On  the  positive  side,  the  good  effects  of  family 
limitation  are  seen  in  the  improvement  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  social  life  of  the  community. 
In  Holland  the  records  show  that,  with  the  adop- 
tion of  birth  control,  the  stature  of  the  men  ap- 
plying at  the  recruiting  office  has  been  notably 
improved.  The  number  of  men  over  5  feet  7 
inches  has  increased  from  24  to  47  per  cent.  The 
number  of  men  under  5  feet,  2'/i  inches  has  de- 
creased from  25  to  8  per  cent.  The  diminution 
of  pauperism  is  also  noticeable.  In  England  the 
number  of  persons  whom  it  was  necessary  to  re- 
lieve annually,  per  thousand  of  the  population, 
has  fallen  from  23.5  in  1875  (when  the  birth  rate 
began  to  decline)  to  26.4  in  1910— a  drop  of  23.5 
per  cent. 

"Most  of  the  extreme  cases  of  destitution  in 
our  big  cities  involve  the  suffering  and  often  the 
wreckage  of  many  little  children.  A  striking  ex- 
ample of  this  fact  is  furnished  by  the  list  of 
'New  York's  One  Hundred  Neediest  Cases,'  pub- 


314          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

lished  by  the  New  York  Times  just  before  Christ- 
mas each  winter.  This  list  is  compiled  by  the 
Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor.  Insane  parents,  fathers  with  broken  spines, 
mothers  incapacitated  by  constant  child-bearing 
or  sickness,  and  large  families  of  pitiful  little 
children,  dependent  on  a  sixteen-year-old  brother 
or  sister,  or  perhaps  eight  little  children  under 
ten  years  of  age — so  the  stories  run.  They  make 
heart-rending  reading.  And  they  point  an  unes- 
capable  moral:  Much  of  the  misery  of  New 
York's  neediest  cases  could  have  been  avoided  by 
the  intelligent  use  of  birth  control. 

"One  of  the  important  arguments  for  family 
limitation  seems  incredible  in  the  criminal  stu- 
pidity it  involves.  Physicians  testify  that  it  is 
fatal  for  women  with  certain  classes  of  diseases 
to  attempt  to  bear  children.  Such  cases  include 
pelvic  deformities  and  certain  types  of  kidney 
and  heart  disease  and  tubercular  conditions. 
With  insanity,  tuberculosis,  and  certain  con- 
tagious diseases,  the  danger  is  multiplied  by  the 
probability  of  its  being  handed  on  to  the  child 
to  handicap  him  through  life. 

"Among  the  very  poor  where  expert  medical 
care  is  not  possible,  men  and  women  unfit  for  par- 
entage, because  of  heriditary  taints  which  they 
may  pass  on,  continue  year  after  year  to  produce 
unfit  and  sickly  children.  Reliable  statistics  show 
that  it  is  these  children  who,  in  after  years,  come 
to  form  a  majority  of  the  inmates  of  the  re- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          315 

formatories,  prisons,  houses  of  prostitution  and 
insane  asylums.  In  addition  to  the  hideous  total 
of  suffering  and  agony  which  goes  into  the  child- 
hood and  maturity  of  such  lives,  it  is  the  State, 
and  each  one  of  us,  who  must  pay  the  ultimate 
bill  for  restraining  and  caring  for  them. 

This  brings  us  to  the  kindred  subject  of  Eu- 
genics. The  negative  phase  of  this  subject — 
the  segregation  or  even  sterilization  by  vasec- 
tomy  of  feeble-minded  is  belatedly  receiving  some 
of  the  attention  it  deserves.  In  its  positive  as- 
pects however,  it  still  hardly  has  progressed.  Yet 
"to  add  one  man  of  the  ability,  say  of  Simon  New- 
comb,  William  James,  E.  B.  Wilson  or  Jacques 
Loeb,  to  the  American  stock  is  of  greater  advan- 
tage than  to  prevent  the  birth  of  a  thousand 
feeble-minded  or  insane."42 

If  the  native  intellectual  endowments  of  the 
Aryan  race  (which  is  usually  ranked  highest  in 
the  scale)  be  compared  with  those  of,  say  the 
Hottentots  (who  are  among  the  lowest)  a  differ- 
ence of  level  undoubtedly  will  be  found  between 
their  averages,  in  favor  of  the  Aryans.  But  this 
difference  isn't  so  great  as  generally  supposed, 
for  many  Aryans  are  as  stupid  as  the  stupidest 
Hottentot,  while  many  individual  Hottentots  lack 
only  an  enducation  to  rival  the  brilliance  of  high 
class  Aryans.  What  is  many,  many  times  greater 
than  the  difference  between  the  averages  of  these 


4-J.  McK.  Cattell.  "American  Men  of  Science."     Second  Edition,  1910. 
p.    563. 


316          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

races  is  the  difference  between  the  individual 
genius  of  the  Aryan  race  and  the  idiots  of  the 
same  race,  or  between  the  brightest  men  and  stup- 
idest men  of  the  Hottentot  race.  Someone  has  ad- 
vanced a  theory  to  account  for  the  difference  in 
civilization  between  two  races,  that  the  higher 
race  is  that  one  which  produces  the  greatest  varia- 
tions away  from  its  average — (has  most  idiots  to 
take  care  of,  but  has  likewise  most  geniuses  to  urge 
it  forward).  That  there  is  a  greater  aberrancy 
from  type  among  advanced,  as  compared  with 
primitive  groups,  of  people  seems  to  be  borne  out 
by  the  statistics  we  have  on  the  subject. 

It's  a  tribute  to  the  instincts  of  mankind  that, 
upon  the  whole,  they're  affected  much  less  power- 
fully by  low  types  than  by  high,  and  that  in  leader- 
ship as  in  most  other  things  in  the  long  run  "real 
merit  wins."  Witness,  for  example,  the  instances 
given  in  Terman's  Study  of  Leadership,  as : 

"Girl  of  11 — ruled  the  boys  and  girls  alike. 
'One  of  the  wealthiest  girls  in  the  village  was  her 
slave.  She  could  make  us  do  as  she  wished  be- 
fore we  knew  what  was  up.  She  was  good-look- 
ing, daring  skillful  in  holding  her  own,  and  older 
than  the  rest.'  " 

Our  program  to  be  scientifically  social  must  in- 
clude eugenic  measures.  There  is  also  the  eugenic 
question  to  be  considered  in  relation  to  the  "high 
birth  rate  among  the  least  desirable  classes  of 
the  community.  The  indigent,  the  unemploy- 
able, the  reckless,  the  drunken  and  the  mentally 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          317 

deficient.  .  .  .  Is  it  wonderful,  then,  that  we 
have  overcrowded  districts  a  physical  and  mental 
depreciation?  The  combined  wisdom  of  the  age 
can  find  no  remedy  from  this  dilemma,  unlimited 
reproduction  and  brutality,  or  humanitarianism 
with  restrictions. 

"The  recent  Mental  Deficiency  Bill  is  a  first 
recognition  of  the  latter  principle.  But  why  deal 
only  with  the  extreme  cases  of  mental  deficiency? 
There  are  millions  of  poor  physically  and  mental- 
ly unfit  creatures  who,  if  voluntary  restriction 
were  known  to  them,  or  they  were  not  told  it  was 
unhealthy  or  immoral,  would  only  be  too  glad  to 
escape  burdening  themselves  and  the  community 
with  a  numerous  and  weakly  progeny.  What  is 
the  use  of  deploring  the  increase  of  the  unfit  when 
the  poor  mothers  among  the  working  classes  are 
only  too  anxious  to  avoid  the  misery  of  bearing 
child  upon  child  in  wretched  surroundings,  on 
miserably  insufficient  wages,  and  of  seeing  half 
of  their  children  perish  from  semi-starvation  be- 
fore their  eyes? 

"What  is  the  use,  too,  of  simply  segrating  the 
mentally  deficient  when  we  have  a  huge  factory 
of  mental  deficiency  in  our  midst  in  the  terrible 
amount  of  venereal  disease  caused  by  prostitu- 
tion? If  all  young  people  were  able  to  marry  at 
a  suitable  age,  instead  of  waiting  to  provide  for 
a  family,  this  great  source  of  defect  would  be 
stopped,  and  it  would  do  far  more  to  check  mental 
defect  than  any  other  measure  which  could  be 


318          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

devised.  In  fact,  we  should  probably  never  have 
needed  the  recent  Mental  Deficiency  measure  if 
our  educated  classes  had  done  their  duty  in  ex- 
tending the  knowledge  of  hygienic  means  of  fam- 
ily limitation  to  the  poor  when  they  adopted  them 
themselves." 

The  public  reticence  to  discuss  these  vital  ques- 
tions reaches  a  point  of  tragic  absurdity  which 
yet  recalls  a  newspaper  item  that  appeared  in  a 
Boston  paper  on  March  12,  1919 : 

BOARD   FENCE   IN  COURTROOM   TO   HIDE 
WOMAN'S  ANKLES. 

"New  York,  March  12. — Because  Mrs.  Betty 
Inch  was  too  generous  in  the  display  of  her  ankles 
to  jurymen  who  failed  a  month  ago  to  agree  on 
a  verdict  in  her  trial  on  a  charge  of  extortion,  she 
found  the  witness  stand  surrounded  by  a  four- 
foot  board  fence  when  she  appeared  today  in  the 
supreme  court  for  the  second  hearing  of  her  case. 

"  'What  is  it,  a  spite  fence?'  the  comely  Mrs. 
Inch  inquired  when  she  entered.  The  partition 
concealed  all  but  her  head  and  shoulders  when 
she  took  the  stand." 

In  the  little  booklet,  "Yes,  but"43  a  last  objec- 
tion   of   the   conservatives    is   thus    stated    and 
answered : 
—  (Quote  p.  23  to  end  p.  24.) 

"Yes,  but  somehow  the  whole  idea  is  distasteful. 


"Issued   by    the    Voluntary    Parenthood    League,    206    Broadway,    New 
York   City,   p.   28. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          319 

I  believe  in  it,  but  really  I  don't  think  I  care  to 
be  associated  with  an  organized  effort  in  regard 
to  it.  It  is  such  an  unpleasant  subject. 

"Granted,  your  aversion, — and  you  are  by  no 
means  alone  in  having  it, — but  are  you  going  to 
let  that  hold  you  back,  when  you  realize  how  day 
by  day  the  needless  tragedies  go  on,  and  that  just 
in  proportion  as  you  and  all  the  others  who  have 
like  feelings,  shrink  from  responsibility,  that  suf- 
fering will  be  prolonged?  Do  you  realize  that 
there  are  thousands  of  women  like  poor  young 

Mrs.  S ,  twenty-six  years  old,  married  five 

years,  and  with  four  living  children,  who  said  to 
the  hospital  nurse  when  offered  a  few  weeks'  rest 
in  the  country:  'I  don't  want  the  country.  I 
want  rest  from  having  babies.  I  can't  stand  it 
much  longer.  I  shall  go  mad!  Think  of  four 
children, — four,  three,  one  and  a  half,  and  the 
new  baby!  If  you  know  anything  that  can  help 
me  and  other  women  like  me,  why  don't  you  teach 
us?' 

"Doesn't  one's  personal  aversion  to  the  subject 
sink  into  nothingness  in  the  face  of  desperate 
need  like  this?  Doesn't  it  make  squeamishness 
seem  rather  like  self-indulgence? 

"Especially,  if  you  yourself,  have  all  the  in- 
formation necessary  for  safeguarding  yourself 
and  your  own  children,  can  you  bear  it  not  to  in- 
sist that  all  the  others  who  need  it,  shall  have  it, 
too?  Noblesse  oblige!" 


CHAPTER  IV 

This  chapter  will  deal  with  the  great  funda- 
mental urge,  hunger. 


SECTION  I 

Down  from  the  dim  past  of  all  peoples  come 
echoes  of  hymns  composed  in  honor  of  some  in- 
toxicant. Whether  we  listen  to  the  vedic  chants 
in  honor  of  some,  the  fermented  juice  of  a  plant 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  godhood,  or  to  the  din  of 
Grecian  bacchanals,  we  are  surprised  with  this 
association  between  wine  or  drugs  and  worship. 
A  relic  of  it  persists  even  today  in  the  Christian 
Eucharist.  Says  Brinton: 

"In  every  savage  tribe  we  find  a  knowledge  of 
narcotic  plants  which  were  employed  to  induce, 
strange  and  vivid  hallucinations  of  dreams  .... 
The  negroes  of  the  Niger  had  their  'fetish  water,' 
the  Creek  Indians  of  Florida  their  'black  drink' 
for  this  purpose.  In  many  parts  of  the  United 
States  the  natives  smoked  stramonium,  the  ?'Iexi- 
can  tribes  swallowed  the  eyotl  and  the  snake- 
plant,  the  tribes  of  California  and  the  Samoyedes 
of  Siberia  had  found  a  poisonous  toadstool;  all 
to  bring  about  communication  with  the  Divine 
and  to  induce  extatic  visions."1  The  Indians  of 
New  Mexico  who  are  "unacquainted  with  intoxi- 
cating liquors  ....  find  drunkenness,  in  the  fumes 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          321 

of  a  certain  herb  smoked  through  a  stone  tube 
and  used  chiefly  during  their  religious  festivals." 
Among  the  old  Mexicans,  a  seed  called  Oliluhgue 
entered  into  a  vision-producing  "divine  medi- 
cine" which  could  be  obtained  only  from  the 
priests.2 

"In  the  Indie  and  Iranian  cult  there  was,"  we 
are  told,  "a  direct  worship  of  deified  liquor  ana- 
logous to  Dionysiac  rites."  It  has  even  been 
maintained  that  the  whole  Rig  Veda  is  but  a  col- 
lection of  hymns  for  soma  worship.  The  drink- 
ing ceremony  was  accompanied  by  magical  incan- 
tations and  by  religious  invocations.  During  the 
frequent  libations  that  marked  the  sacrifice  of 
soma,  the  officiating  priest  asked  repeatedly  for 
inspiration.  He  offered  the  liquor  with  these 
words:  "0,  Indra,  accept  our  offering  ....  drink 
of  the  soma,  thou  the  friend  of  prayer  and  of  the 
liquor;  well  disposed  God,  drink  in  order  to  in- 
toxicate thyself."  "I  pour  it  out  into  the  double 
cavity  of  thy  belly ;  may  it  spread  thru  thy  mem- 
bers; may  it  be  sweet  to  thy  taste;  may  it 
steal  upon  thee,  0  deliverer,  veiled  as  women 
seeking  a  rendez-vous.  Hero  with  the  strong 
neck,  full  bellied,  strong  of  arms,  0  Indra,  praised 
by  many,  accept  the  pressed  out  soma,  father  of 
divine  energy." 

Leuba,1  who  quotes  the  above  passage,  con- 
tinues :  "Modern  India  has  not  renounced  the  use 


'David  Brtnton,  The  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples,  p.   7. 

-H.  H.   Cancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  1,  pp.  566-567. 

'Extatic    Intoxication    in    Religion,    James    H.    Leuba.    pp.    578-579. 


322          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

of  drugs  in  religious  ceremonies.  The  India 
Hemp  Commission  appointed  by  the  English  Gov- 
ernment to  investigate  the  use  of  hemp  drugs  in 
its  Hindoo  possessions,  reported  that  several 
hemp  preparations  are  "extensively  used  in  the 
exercise  of  religious  practices.''  They  found  evi- 
dence of  the  "almost  universal  use  of  hemp  drugs 
by  fakirs,  jogis,  sanyasis,  and  ascetics  of  all 
classes,  and  more  particularly  by  those  devoted 
to  the  worship  of  Siva."  The  hemp  plant  is  be- 
lieved by  priests  and  oeople  to  be  a  special  at- 
tribute of  that  god. 

In  this  early  identification  of  intoxication  with 
religion  and  its  subsequent  divorce,  we  have  a 
fact  curiously  resembling  the  early  confusion 
with  religion  and  subsequent  divorce  from  it  t)f 
various  sciences  and  arts.  In  this  case  the  mean- 
ing probably  is  to  be  found  in  the  confusion  of  ex- 
tatic  states  physically  produced  (and  in  them- 
selves affording  a  relief  to  excitation)  with  the 
trance-like  condition  so  generally  regarded  as 
favorable  to  communication  with  another  world. 

A  colored  sentinel  challenged  another  colored 
soldier  who  seemed  to  be  carrying  something  in- 
side the  lines. 

"Whot  goes  there?"  he  asked. 

"Lieutenant  with  a  jug  o'  gin,"  was  the  an- 
swer. 

"Pass,  Lieutenant!  Halt,  gin!"  commanded  the 
sentry. 

That  the  use  of  narcotics  no  longer  can  be  held 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          323 

as  the  peculiar  reproach  of  oriental  peoples  is 
evident  from  statistics  of  conditions  in  our  own 
country  in  1919.  Before  us  is  a  clipping  from 
a  Boston  paper  that  reads: 

"Albany,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  25.— One  man  in  every 
twenty  in  New  York  State  is  addicted  to  the  use 
of  narcotic  drugs — a  dope  fiend.  And  nine  out  of 
ten  of  these  morphine  slaves  are  being  swindled 
daily  by  proprietors  of  fake  drug  'cures'  or  by  ig- 
norant administering  of  so-called  narcotic  drug 
remedies  by  reputable  physicians. 

"This  appalling  condition  of  affairs  was  re- 
vealed in  a  report  by  Ex-Senator  George  H.  Whit- 
ney, pioneer  in  narcotic  legislation,  made  public 
today. 

"Ex-Senator  Whitney,  as  chairman  of  a  special 
legislative  investigating  committee,  heads  the  op- 
position to  the  proposed  abolition  of  the  State 
bureau  for  narcotic  drug  control.  Instead  of 
abolishing  the  bureau  Mr.  Whitney  and  his  co- 
workers  in  the  fight  against  the  use  of  drugs  will 
urge  the  Legislature  to  combat  the  drug  evil  by 
seeking  scientific  cures  to  be  administered  by  the 
State." 

The  ultimate  cure  for  drug  using,  however,  can- 
not come  from  less  than  a  grand-scale  turning  of 
the  people  away  from  the  pursuit  of  luxury  to  the 
Simple  Life.  We  must  cease  to  believe  that  drugs 
or  anything  short  of  abstemious  living,  moderate 
exercise  and  plenty  of  repose  can  give  respite 
from  ill-being.  That  it  sets  itself  squarely  against 


324          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

these  ideals  is  a  terrible  indictment  of  modern 
"civilization." 

The  inference  probably  is  that  drug-using,  as 
well  as  drinking,  isn't  merely  a  habit  in  the  sense 
that  riding  a  bicycle  may  become  a  habit.  These 
things  obtain  their  grip  chiefly  upon  persons 
whom  the  strain  of  "civilization"  has  rendered 
neurotic. 

That  gambling  also  must  be  put  in  this  class 
is  the  contenting  of  a  Dr.  Corning.  A  newspaper 
clipping2  says: 

"On  gambling  in  its  moral  and  economic  aspects 
there  has  been  endless  writing  and  talking,  all 
condemnatory,  of  course.  And  gambling  goes  on, 
in  one  form  or  another,  probably  as  much  as  ever, 
though  a  good  deal  of  it  is  now  done  under  other 
names  and  much  that  used  to  be  public  is  now 
more  or  less  secretly  conducted.  Of  scientific  at- 
tempts to  describe  and  explain  the  psychology  of 
gambling  there  have  been  few,  and  still  fewer 
have  been  those  to  cure,  instead  of  to  denounce, 
the  gambler's  psychosis.  The  first  task  is  un- 
dertaken by  Dr.  J.  Leonard  Corning  in  an  article 
contributed  by  him  to  The  Medical  Record,  and 
both  his  observations  and  his  conclusions  have 
the  interest  of  novelty. 

"Gambling  makes  its  wide,  almost  universal, 
appeal,  Dr.  Corning  thinks,  not  to  mere  greed  or 
avarice — the  desire  to  get  something  for  nothing 
— but  because  in  playing  games  of  chance  for 


2The  date   is   about   1914.     We  have   lost  record   of   the   paper.. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          325 

valuable  stakes  there  is  a  constant  alternation  of 
emotion  that  is  in  itself  pleasurable,  and  there 
comes  into  action  the  same  element  of  suspense 
that  forms  at  least  a  large  part  of  the  attraction 
in  many  legitimate  amusements  and  occupations. 
It  is  this  suspense — the  ignorance  of  what  is  go- 
ing to  happen  and  the  joy  which  comes  from 
seeing  or  learning  what  does  happen — that  for 
most  people  makes  novels  and  plays  enjoyable 
and  holds  attention  to  one  or  several  climaxes  and 
the  succeeding  denouements.  The  man  engaged 
in  scientific  research  also  alternates  between  con- 
fident hope  and  the  disappointments  of  defeat, 
but  enjoys  his  work,  even  though  it  does  not 
prove  materially  profitable. 

"In  games  of  hazard  the  suspense  is  brought 
about  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  while  its  alterna- 
tions are  injuriously  frequent  and  there  is  noth- 
ing logical  about  the  conclusion.  Gambling  is 
merely  a  misuse  of  that  capacity  and  inclination 
to  take  chances  upon  which  enterprise  and  prog- 
ress of  every  kind  largely  depend.  Its  votaries 
often  show,  and  all  of  them  can  be  suspected  of, 
a  neurasthenic  taint.  This,  in  Dr.  Coming's 
opinion,  makes  the  gambling  habit  in  its  more 
exaggerated  forms  an  affair  of  psychopathology 
rather  than  of  morals,  and  he  thinks  that  dis- 
semination of  knowledge  of  the  habit's  essen- 
tially morbid  nature,  coupled  with  a  dispassionate 
and  explicit  account  of  its  inroads  on  mental  ef- 
ficiency, should  help  to  a  rational  prophylaxis." 


326          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

As  we  shall  see  in  a  later  chapter,  the  knack  of 
exploring  the  unconscious  can  in  some  degree  be 
acquired,  and  the  student  will  only  then  be  in  a 
position  to  quite  understand  himself,  and  to  re- 
place his  present  too  crude  objectives  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  objectives  satisfying  a  wider  range 
of  his  desires. 


SECTION  2 

So  much  for  the  dangers  inherent  in  even  that 
instinct  which  is  fundamental  to  our  preservation. 
The  wonder  is  that  it's  able  to  guide  us  at  all  in 
this  unnatural,  complex,  and  changing  environ- 
ment which  we've  created. 

The  fact  is  that  the  evolution  of  the  human  race 
has  gradually  weeded  out  those  individuals  who 
have  not  had  an  unconscious  predilection  for  the 
wholesome  things  in  their  environment.  If  we 
today  are  unable  to  select  that  which  is  whole- 
some, it  is  because  (a)  our  environment  is  not 
that  which  it  has  been  thru  the  centuries  of  mil- 
lenniums of  evolution  of  the  race,  and  (b)  because 
we  are  in  such  a  state  today  and  so  far  removed 
from  the  natural,  that  we  do  not  let  the  uncon- 
scious, instinctive  nature  speak  to  us. 

Hunger  reduces  itself  to  a  chemotropism.  Loeb 
describes  how  minute  organisms,  swimming  in  a 
tank  of  water,  are  stimulated  to  turning- 
movements  in  a  purely  mechanical  way  when  cer- 
tain chemical  infusions  are  introduced  into  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          327 

fluid  from  a  particular  quarter.  Similarly  he 
shows  how  young  caterpillars  are  at  first  violently 
heliotropic  until  when  for  that  reason  they  have 
climbed  up  the  twig  to  the  tender  shoots,  these 
latter  chemotropically  excite  their  mandibles.  It 
seems  likely  that  in  the  young  infant  the  first 
sucking  is  essentially  a  chemotropic  reaction,  and 
that  this  reflex  is  thereafter  conditioned  by  vari- 
ous associations  until  its  various  manifestations 
constitute  a  so-called  instinct. 

"Professor  Preyer  divides  the  movements  of  in- 
fants into  impulsive,  reflex,  and  instinctive.  By 
impulsive  movements  he  means  random  move- 
ments of  limb,  body  and  voice,  with  no  aim,  be- 
fore perception  is  aroused.  Among  the  first  re- 
flex movements  are  crying  on  contact  with  air, 
sneezing,  snuffling,  snoring,  coughing,  sighing, 
sobbing,  gagging,  vomiting,  hiccoughing,  start- 
ing, moving  the  limbs  when  tickled,  touched,  or 
blown  upon,  etc. 

"Of  the  movements  called  instinctive  in  the 
child,  Professor  Preyer  gives  a  full  account.  Herr 
Schneider  does  the  same.  I  will  base  my  own 
very  brief  statements  upon  theirs. 

"  'Sucking.' 

"  'Biting  an  object  placed  in  the  mouth,  licking 
sugar,  making  characteristic  grimaces  over  bitter 
and  sweet  tastes ;  spitting  out.' 

"  'Clasping  an  object  which  touches  the  fingers 
or  toes.  Later,  attempts  to  grasp  at  an  object 


328          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

seen  at  a  distance.  Pointing  at  such  objects,  and 
making  a  peculiar  sound  expressive  of  desire.' 

"  'Carrying  to  the  mouth  of  the  object  when 
grasped.  This  instinct  leads  to  a  set  of  habits 
which  constitute  his  function  of  alimentation,  the 
first  expression  of  instinctive  life."3 

It  is  a  delightful  instinct,  is  alimentiveness, 
prompter  of  midnight  pantry  raids  and  source  of 
all  gustatory  joy,  but  source  also  for  humanity, 
of  as  much  woe  as  joy. 

"They  are  sick  that  surfeit  with  too  much,  as 
they  that  starve  with  nothing."4 

The  amount  of  pleasure  derivable  from  our 
instincts  is  limited.  We  shall  be  broaching  no  very 
new  idea,  when  we  say  it  seems  as  tho  our  animal 
economy  produces  regularly  an  amount  of  vital 
energy  ultimately  dependent  upon  our  state  of 
health,  much  as  a  river  bed  produces  an  amount 
of  water  dependent  upon  the  conditions  of  the 
soil.  Applause,  balls,  cocktails,  the  drama,  eat- 
ing, fine  feathers,  etc.,  can  wash  pleasure  in  upon 
us  momentarily  at  a  greater  rate  than  the  normal, 
but  can't  do  so  for  more  than  a  limited  time ;  and 
so  soon  as  the  stimuli  are  removed,  the  flood  of 
energy  slackens,  until  there  shall  have  been  time 
for  the  normal  flow  of  the  stream  to  have  built 
itself  up  again. 


3Wm.   James'   Principles  of   Psychology ;  volume  2,   pp.   403-404. 
••Merchant  of  Venice.     Act  1.     Scene  2,   L.   5. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          329 

"Drunk  last  night;  drunk  the  night  before; 

Going  to  get  drunk  tonight,  if  we  never  get  drunk  any 

more! 

When  I  am  drunk  I'm  as  happy  as  can  be; 
For  I  am  a  member  of  the  Souse  familee! 
Glorious!      Glorious! 
One  keg  of  beer  among  the  four  of  us! 
Glory  be  to  God  there  are  no  more  of  us; 
For  any  one  of  us  could  drink  it  all  alone!" 

This  does  well  enough  for  a  rollicking  song 
the  evening  before,  among  companions  "born  but 
to  banquet  and  drain  the  bowl,"5  but  on  the  morn- 
ing after  it  has  a  hollow  sound.  Mr.  Gourmand 
has  a  bad  taste  in  his  mouth — he  eventually  be- 
comes cross  and  loses  his  keen  enjoyment  of  deli- 
cate flavors  and  is  lucky  if  he  stops  short  of  de- 
lirium tremens  or  dyspesia  (which  has  been  de- 
fined as  "a  square  meal  in  a  round  stomach"). 
Mr.  Puffer  isn't  long  without  his  accustomed  ci- 
gar, before  he  commences  to  crave  it.  Dicky,  the 
dime  novel  fiend,  finds  too  little  excitement  in  his 
humdrum  duties  as  office  boy.  Nancy  Nicklodeon 
endures  an  evening  at  home  only  as  the  greatest 
torture.  Then  why  do  we  send  missions  to  rescue 
the  cocaine-fiend  or  the  hashish-eating  dervish; 
isn't  all  folly  a  matter  of  degree?  In  ancient 
Rome,  noblemen  oftentimes  became  gladiators,  to 
win  applause ;  their  vanity  was  in  no  respect  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  your  present-day  aspirant  for 
social  leadership,  the  dweller  in  a  too  fine  man- 


•'•Homer's   Odyssey,   Book   10,   L.   622,   Pope's   Translation. 
"Dress    does    make    a    difference,    David.       (Bod    Acres,     in    Sheridan, 
The  Rivals,   3,   4.) 


330          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

sion,  the  wearer  of  jewels,  or  of  him  or  her  who 
takes  pride  in  being  more  gaudily  dressed  "than 
business  interests  demand."  Roman  gourmand- 
ism  disgusts  us,  but  our  own  dietetic  house  of 
glass  is  as  frail  as  theirs ;  we  moderns  take  more 
frequent  meals  and  probably  surfeit  ourselves 
more,  and  with  worse  mixtures  than  those  in- 
dulged in  by  the  poor  old  wealthy  Romans. 


SECTION  3 

In  this  section  we  wish  to  show  that  the  typical 
pleasure-seeker  is  like  a  man  who  tries  to  make  a 
brook  flow  faster  by  sweeping  the  water  down 
with  a  broom.  He  creates  a  momentary  flood; 
then  there  comes  a  scarcity.  Just  so  the  pleasure 
we  get  from  luxuries  or  entertainments  of  what- 
ever kind  is  followed  by  comparative  ennui.  The 
valley  behind  the  brook  can  supply  water  only  at 
the  usual  rate,  and  he  who  accept  this  as  so  is 
spared  much  pains.  The  foresighted  person,  who 
wastes  none  of  his  energies  thru  unwholesome  liv- 
ing, is  like  the  man  who  so  well  utilizes  the  water 
of  the  brook  that  it  more  than  supplies  his  needs. 
The  altruist  who  foregoes  tobacco  and  other  habits 
because  they  are  repugnant  and  interferences 
with  other  people's  rights  is  sure  to  benefit  there- 
by, as  is  the  man  who  dams  up  the  brook  to  make 
a  drinking  place  for  the  chance  passer-by,  and 
incidentally  finds  that  the  reserve  thus  created 
tides  him  over  a  period  of  drought. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          331 

There  also  is  to  be  considered  (by  most  people) 
in  this  connection  the  economic  disadvantage  of 
luxurious  tastes.  A  case  in  point  is  that  of  a  lit- 
tle boy  who  was  asked  by  a  humanitarian  "Do 
you  know  what  poor  animal  had  to  suffer  in  order 
that  your  mother  might  wear  those  furs?" 

"Yes,"  came,  the  reply,  "my  papa." 

Aunt  Mary  Wells  is  one  of  the  few  "befo'  de 
wan"  darkies  left  in  a  little  Kentucky  town.  Re- 
cently she  was  discussing  with  her  employer  the 
merry-go-round  that  was  running  up  on  the  cor- 
ner. 

"Nawsuh,  Mr.  Malcolm,"  she  said,  "naw-suh, 
I  don'  ride  on  none  o'  dem  things.  Why,  Mr. 
Malcolm,  I've  seen  some  o'  these  here  fool  niggers 
git  on  that  thing  and  ride  as  much  as  a  dollar's 
worth,  and  git  off  at  the  very  same  place  they 
gits  on  at;  an'  I  sez  to  'em,  'Now  you  spent  yo' 
money,  nigger,  whah  yo'  been  ?  ' 

"Considering  the  matter  from  a  purely  per- 
sonal and  selfish  viewpoint,  I  genuinely  fail  to 
see  what  material  gift  beyond  that  of  a  sound 
body  can  afford  a  man  much  happiness.  Of 
money,  only  a  small  amount  is  needed  to  sustain 
a  person  in  that  simplicity  in  which  he  thrives 
best.  More  than  that  is  only  display,  which  em- 
bitters one  against  the  shop-keepers  who  begin  to 
make  him  a  target  for  imposition  and  dishon- 
esty: Or  it's  for  social  recognition,  envied  by  the 
brainless;  this  means  you  must  hold  yourself 
aloof  from  the  herd,  and  so  do  violence  to  some  of 


332          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

the  finer  feelings.  Or  it's  for  entertaining  so 
numerous  a  company  of  friends,  that  those  among 
them  whose  attachment  is  upon  the  solid  rock 
of  inherent  affinity,  those  whom  you  would 
"grapple  to  thy  soul  with  hoops  of  steel"  (as 
Shakespeare  puts  it) ,  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  herd 
who  come  only  to  feed  at  your  table,  with  the  re- 
sult that  you  become  irritable,  cynical  and  inci- 
dentally less  able  to  attract  real  friends.  Or  it's 
to  give  to  the  needy,  and  so  aid  in  maintaining 
the  race  of  the  unfit  and  parasitic  at  your  door 
day  and  night,  besieging  you  through  the  keyhole 
and  every  mail.  Or  to  spend  it,  your  life's  energy, 
'drowning'  trouble  in  dissipation,  ruining  that 
one  undoubted  asset,  your  physique,  and  worry- 
ing over  blackmail  and  scandal.  Heigh-ho! 

But  if  we  accept  an  hypothesis,  we  must  be  pre- 
pared to  accept  it  in  all  its  applications.  The 
pleasure  of  pictures,  the  pride  in  porcelain,  the 
perusual  of  world  news  and  the  enjoyment  of 
grand  opera,  all  these,  unless  in  that  minute  de- 
gree in  which  they  may  increase  our  general  ef- 
ficiency, are  mere  vanities.  They  are  dissipa- 
tions. To  those  who  enjoy  them  they  are  as  far 
from  bringing  a  permanent  accretion  of  happi- 
ness as  are  horseracing,  cock-fighting,  card  play- 
ing and  comic  opera.7 

So  much  being  arrived  at,  it  may  be  argued, 


7"The  Theatre,  in  proper  hands,  might  certainly  be  made  ths 
school  of  morality :  but  now,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it,  people  seem  to 
go  there  principally  for  their  entertainment."— Sheridan,  The  Critic, 
Act.  1,  1. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          333 

'If  Desire  is  a  source  of  misery,  we  ought  to  en- 
courage no  appetities,  but  simply  to  let  Desire 
die  of  inanition,  tho  we  ourselves  die,  too.' 

The  fundamental  mistake  here  is  in  supposing 
that  all  desires  are  unpleasant.  Desire  denied 
satisfaction  is  what's  unpleasant.  When  you 
know  that  a  good  dinner  is  on  the  table,  is  it  a 
misfortune  to  be  hungry  ?  Do  you  say,  "Alas, 
would  that  I  could  lose  my  appetite." 

As  our  old  Professor,  John  Dewey8  has  pointed 
out,  desire,  in  itself,  is  merely  an  urge  in  a  certain 
direction,  pleasurable  or  painful,  according  to 
whether  or  not  it's  combined  with  the  expectancy 
of  being  satisfied.  This,  of  course,  always  pre- 
supposes a  healthy  general  condition  of  the  body, 
but  if  we  pretend  a  listless  apathy  which  we  don't 
truly  feel,  by  denying  ourselves  the  actual  re- 
quirements of  health  we  only  deal  our  welfare 
a  more  severe  blow  than  we  were  trying  to  avoid, 
by  turning  off  the  spigot  whence  all  happiness 
must  commence  its  flow. 

"But,"  quotha,  "At  first,  the  writer  was  for 
ridding  us  of  needless  desires,  while  now  he  con- 
tradicts himself,  by  saying  desires  may  bring 
happiness.  If  they  may  bring  happiness,  why 
discourage  them?  Why  not  welcome  them,  and 
the  more  the  merrier.  E.g.,  why  shouldn't  Paul, 
the  rich  pork  packer's  son  cultivate  his  taste  for 
flashy  neckties,  or  even  for  an  occasional  gal- 
lery seat  at  the  grand  opera,  so  long  as  he  can 


8Dewey   and   Tufts.— Ethics. 


334          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

confidentially  anticipate  that  these  desires  always 
may  receive  due  satisfaction?  Why  not — 0, 
pshaw!  The  fellow  has  given  his  case  dead 
away !' ' 

Be  patient!  thou  excitable  one,  whilst  we  ex- 
plain that  no  one  would  sell  Paul  Porkpacker  his 
pink  tie,  or  welcome  him  to  his  roost  at  "Aida" 
more  gladly  than  we ;  did  we  not  see  that  the  very 
pleasures  which  a  desire  in  being  fulfilled  affords, 
leads  to  expansion  of  that  desire  and  birth  of  new 
desires. 

There's  much  truth  in  that  nursery  tale  of  the 
fisherman  who  was  kind  to  a  fairy  crawfish.  The 
fairy,  of  course,  offered  him  any  reward  he'd 
ask.  The  fisherman  first  spoke  for  a  small  cot- 
tage. With  this,  he  was  for  a  time  content,  till, 
egged  on  by  his  more  ambitious  -wife,  he  returned 
to  request  a  lordly  castle  and  estate.  Becoming 
at  last  king,  and  being  more  greedy  with  each 
new  gift,  he  at  last  demanded  to  become  God  him- 
self ;  at  which  impudence  the  crawfish  took  back 
everything  it  had  given.  We're  sure,  therefore, 
that  Paul  Porkpacker  no  sooner  bought  his  pink 
tie  than  he  immediately  became  aware  that  the 
reddish  brown  suit  which  he  wore  was  "impos- 
sible" with  this. 

"He  can  afford  a  new  suit,"  say  you. 

Having  a  new  suit,  it  occurs  to  him  to  be  "the 
neatest  dresser"  in  his  college  class. 

"No  harm  in  that,"  say  you. 

Which  gives  him  a  certain  standing  with  the 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          335 

fair  sex,  so  that  the  next  time  he  goes  to  the 
opera,  he'll  take  a  pretty  companion  along  who 
may  prefer  "The  Follies"  to  "Aida,"  and  isn't 
agreeable  to  sitting  in  the  gallery 

"So  long  as  she's  a  nice  girl    .  .  .  .,"  say  you. 

Though  very  nice  she  may  be  dull  company, 
so  that  Paul  happens  round  at  the  stage  entrance 
the  next  time  the  company's  in  town,  to  see 
whether  Totty  Twotoes  wouldn't  be  a  livelier  girl 
to  have  out  to  supper. 

"We're  young  but  once,"  say  you. 

Totty  prefers  the  young  men  who're  not  too 
stingy  with  their  money. 

"So  do  I,"  say  you. 

But  Paul  learns  that  a  good  many  women  in 
smart  society  are  much  the  same  way,  and  feels 
he's  now  a  irfan  of  the  world. 

"Would  you  have  him  remain  always  a  child?" 
you  ask. 

In  fact,  some  of  his  scrapes  have  cost  "Old 
Man"  Porkpacker  a  tidy  little  sum  in  blackmail. 

"Good  joke  on  Dad,"  say  you. 

And  after  the  upset  of  a  certain  memorable 
Joy-ride,  Paul  persuades  his  father  that  a  yacht 
is  safer  than  an  automobile,  and,  moreover,  would 
be  profitable  in  enabling  him  to  become  chummy 
with  wealthy  members  of  the  New  York  Yacht 
Club.  "The  right  acquaintances  might  be  very 
helpful  to  him  in  a  business  way,"  say  you. 

But  Paul  is  hardly  one  of  this  crowd  of  high 
financiers,  ere  from  them  he  learns  the  joys  of 


336          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

laying  out  a  beautiful  country  estate,  or  equip- 
ping a  boys'  school. 

"I'm  getting  sleepy,"  say  you. 

In  sum,  dear  reader,  the  point  is,  that  the  body 
of  our  desires,  which  may  be  a  source  of  unalloyed 
pleasure  to  us  if  we  keep  them  starved  down  close 
to  the  ground  of  their  physiological  functions, 
strain  always  to  shoot  forth  sturdy  branches  in 
the  place  of  their  former  delicate  twigs;  which 
branches  require  far  more  effort  to  hold  back,  or 
even  they  may  tear  our  house  all  to  pieces.  If  we 
live,  the  time  eventually  comes  when  our  increas- 
ing desires  must  go  partly  unsatisfied.  My  con- 
tention is  that  we  should  make  the  best  of  an  in- 
evitable dilemma,  take  a  healthy  enjoyment  out 
of  satisfying  a  minimum  of  desires,  but  constant- 
ly check  all  desires  with  an  early  enough  denial  so 
that  they  may  "know  their  proper  places."  De- 
sires are  turbulent  egoists;  indulge  one  of  them 
with  some  slight  authority  over  his  fellow-desires, 
and  he  straightway  becomes  an  oppressive  tyrant. 
"Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  Liberty."  Not 
by  vindictive  bruising  the  tops  of  the  largest 
weeds,  nor  by  punishing  gophers  with  whips,  does 
one's  garden  grow  into  ideal  beauty,  but  rather 
thru  the  instant  death  of  these  undesirable  germ- 
inations. Neither  does  a  club  or  association  of 
persons  recruit  its  membership  promiscuously 
and  then  expect  to  bulldoze  the  new  members  into 
conformity  with  the  original  purpose  for  which 
the  club  was  formed,  but  rather  it  builds  itself 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          337 

up  from  the  start,  out  of  only  those  materials 
which  will  be  wholly  congenial  to  its  purpose.  So 
also,  a  personality,  to  be  in  any  sense  successful, 
must  upbuild  itself  exclusively  from  mental  states 
that  are  appropriate.  Contentment  is  possible 
only  thru  realization  that  all  material  prizes,  with 
the  one  exception  of  bodily  health,  are  vanity  and 
illusion — "maya." 

It's  not  merely  that  indulgences  bring  no  sur- 
plus of  satisfaction;  they  work  counter  to  the 
nobler  interests  of  life. 

"  'Live  like  yourself,'  was  soon  my  lady's  word, 
And  lo,   two  puddings  smoked   upon   the   board."' 

"Fat  paunches  have  lean  pates,  and  dainty  bits 
Make  rich  the  ribs,  but  banquet  quite  the  wits."10 

Not  only  do  gourmandizing,  beer-swilling,  etc., 
stupify  one,  but  they  lead  to  the  use  of  stronger 
stimulants  and  narcotics  which  complete  the  ruin 
of  man.  The  melancholy  raven  in  Poe's  famous 
poem  symbolizes  that  author's  own  morbid  habits, 
while  "Lenore"  was  his  own  lost  manhood. 

The  "self-sacrificing"  person  is  indirectly  but 
another  product  of  these  same  passions,  since  he's 
the  frightened  or  disgusted  man  who  has  fled 
from  the  follies  of  excess  to  an  opposite  extreme 
almost  equally  illogical.  Fright  and  disgust  both 
are  irrational,  because  Temperance  must  be 
temperate. 

But  how  to  tell  how  much  of  anything  is  a 


•Love's  Labour  Lost     Act  1,   Scene  1,   L.  26. 
10Pope's  Moral   Essays,   Ep.   Ill,   L.   461. 


338          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

happy  mean,  and  how  much,  absurd  extreme? 
The  only  method  is,  to  feel  one's  way  by  degrees. 
Suppose  that  in  a  moment  of  exaltation  and  con- 
viction X  concludes  that  he  ought  to  live  in  the 
desert  as  a  hermit.  We  say  that  instead  of  sneak- 
ing away  that  very  evening,  leaving  a  bereaved 
family  and  a  neglected  business  to  condole  with 
each  other  it  would  be  better  to  proceed  more  de- 
liberately lest  the  next  month,  or  even  the  next 
day,  he  should  come  running  back  to  say  he'd 
changed  his  mind.  During  the  first  few  nights  he 
should  "sleep  on"  the  proposition.  In  the  mean- 
while he  might  introduce  a  few  modifications  in 
regard  to  his  diet — dropping  out  the  cocktails  to- 
day, the  lobster  a  la  Newburg  tomorrow,  replac- 
ing each  omission  with  an  increased  percentage 
of  the  traditional  parched  peas  and  water.  The 
following  Sunday  morning,  in  place  of  his  usual 
eighteen  holes  at  the  club,  he  could  commence  to 
spade  out  a  cozy  little  cave  in  his  own  backyard, 
acclimatizing  himself  to  the  life  of  a  desert- 
dweller  by  retiring  into  his  shelter  nightly;  in 
the  meantime  he  could  terminate  his  family  re- 
lations amicably,  and  settle  up  his  business  prop- 
erly. If  he  were  successful  in  these  preliminary 
motions,  assuredly  he'd  attract  an  enthusiastic 
apostle  for  the  new  architecture  in  the  person  of 
every  unspoilt  small  boy  of  the  neighborhood. 
In  due  course  of  time  our  hermit  may  rent  a  gen- 
uine cave  in  some  suburban  location,  not  too  in- 
accessible to  be  reached  by  occasional  reporters, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          339 

and  sight-seeing  tourists,  and  here  he'll  write  his 
book  on  "The  Modern  Recluse,"  or  "A  Holy  Her- 
mit and  His  Hermitage,  by  Himself,"  which  is  to 
perpetuate  and  popularize  his  ideals,  and  insure 
himself  sufficient  notoriety  and  misunderstand- 
ing on  which  to  really  begin  his  business  of  her- 
miting  in  earnest.  These  preliminaries  over,  our 
cautious  fellow,  if  his  resolution  still  holds,  is 
welcome  to  the  desert  places  of  the  earth. 

Upon  the  whole,  however,  you'll  find  that  the 
best  opinion  of  today  doesn't  favor  the  kind  of 
holiness  which  helps  no  one  but  the  holy  man's 
self.  Parched  peas  may  sustain  the  fire  of  life 
when  fanned  by  the  hot  breath  of  enthusiasm; 
communities  of  ardent  devotees  doubtless  awaken 
each  other's  latent  warmth,  when  in  a  colder  at- 
mosphere much  richer  fuel  couldn't  withstand  the 
chill.  Yet— 

We  may  justly  question  whether  those  particu- 
lars of  a  man's  life  which  are  most  evident  to 
outsiders,  or  even  toward  which  he  himself  cher- 
ishes the  greatest  attachment,  are  in  many  cases 
worthy  of  being  esteemed  so  highly. 

There  is  one  thing,  indeed,  upon  which  too  much 
valor  cannot  be  placed — a  modicum  of  Health  is  so 
essential  to  any  credit  balance  on  the  happiness 
side  of  life,  that  whoever  is  without  it,  or  without 
at  least  a  fair  expectation  of  being  compara- 
tively exempt  from  actual  suffering  in  the  body, 
will  do  well  to  shuffle  off  this  mortal  coil  as  quick- 
ly as  possible.  Actual  suffering,  of  course,  must 


340          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

be  distinguished  from  mere  potential  pain.  An 
incurable  bed-ridden  invalid  may  be  altogether 
comfortable  so  long  as  he  simply  keeps  quite  still ; 
and  if  such  a  man  will  cultivate  a  patient,  cheer- 
ful disposition,  he  may  pass  the  years  happily, 
more  happily,  perhaps,  than  if  his  infirmity  hadn't 
shielded  him  from  certain  aspects  of  more  active 
life. 

Truly  one  may  say  that  the  gift  of  a  sound  body 
is  a  piece  of  a  great  fortune,  besides  which  all 
other  possessions  pale  into  insignificance.  I 
question  whether  anything  more,  at  all,  on  the 
material  side,  is  necessary  to  man's  selfish  happi- 
ness than  the  conditions  of  physical  and  mental 
health.  These  conditions  are  two-fold;  (1) 
hygienic  comfort  and  (2)  appropriate  material 
for  the  exercising  of  the  faculties,  e.g.,  space 
in  which  to  move  about  naturally,  a  moderate 
variation  of  stimuli,  and  occasional  friends  with 
whom  to  converse.  All  else  depends  upon  one's 
standards  and  imagination,  hence  is  subject  to 
one's  will.  For  all  luxuries  only  seem  to  add  joy 
to  our  lives,  since  every  pleasure  in  which  we  in- 
dulge inevitably  makes  such  pleasures  in  the  fu- 
ture less  of  a  delight  and  more  a  matter  of 
course,  which  we  miss  when  they're  not  present. 

In  parts  of  China,  India,  Egypt  and  other  coun- 
tries, we've  seen  the  masses  of  the  people  so  des- 
perately poor  that  thru  the  nights  they  lay  by 
the  roadside  wrapped  in  only  a  cotton  rag 
or  two,  quite  numb  with  cold ;  it  was  inconceivable 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          341 

how  they  lived  at  all,  yet  many  were  far  happier 
than  middle-class  people  in  this  country,  because 
they  took  their  penury  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
looked  upon  any  occasional  nearly  satisfying 
meal,  or  almost-vermin-free  bed,  or  what-not,  as 
a  delightful  surprise.  We  dare  say  that  everything 
to  which  these  poor  creatures  look  forward  as  to 
pleasures,  we  could  endure  only  as  extreme 
hardships.  Their  beds  would  infest  and  bruise 
us;  their  foods  irritate  our  palates;  their  cheap 
confectionery  and  "soft"  drinks  (served  in  dirty 
cups)  we'd  be  afraid  of;  their  vile  liquors  would 
strangle  us;  their  religious  rites,  by  which  they 
obtain  ecstasy  would  give  us  the  cramps;  their 
sweet,"  to  do  honor  to  the  house  guest,  by  smear- 
ing it  with  cow-dung,  would  be  distasteful  to  us. 
we  advise  no  one  to  live  the  life  of  an  Oriental 
way  of  rendering  the  house  floor  "clean  and 
coolie;  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  maintenance  of 
vital  efficiency. 

Yet,  the  coolie  can  teach  what  utterly  relative 
terms  "luxury"  and  "privation"  are.  Privation 
means  having  less  than  you  have  habitually, 
therefore  he  who  is  accustomed  to  abundance 
finds  in  but  few  things  any  luxury,  while  in  many 
little  matters  he  suffers  privation.  Whereas  he 
who  is  used  to  asceticism,  enjoys  all  simple  com- 
monplaces as  though  they  were  luxuries;  more- 
over, he  doesn't  fear,  and  hardly  ever  feels  priva- 
tion. This  is  the  result  of  an  unconscious  form 
of  auto-suggestion.  There's  no  one  but  requires 


342          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

to  administer  some  form  of  auto-suggestion  to 
himself  regularly,  else  he  degenerates  into  one  of 
the  many  species  of  savages. 

One  of  the  benefits  which  enthusiasts  gain 
from  a  cult  so  seemingly  far  removed  from  psy- 
cology  as  the  cult  of  Physical  Development,  is 
the  psychological  effect  of  religiously  performing 
a  few  stunts  every  morning,  let  us  say,  with 
heavy  weights;  some  exercise  which  begins  the 
day  with  a  strong  outflow  of  energy  that  more 
than  compensates  for  the  inevitable  fatigue  of 
the  exercise.  The  daily  cold  plunge  has  perhaps 
its  chief  value  in  this  direction,  tho  for  those 
to  whom  cold  water  is  distasteful,  the  burden  of 
the  thot  that  "There's  that  unpleasant  thing  to 
be  gone  thru  with  again  today,  tomorrow,  the  next 
day,  and  every  day  until  I  die"  would  be  a  rem- 
edy worse  than  the  disease.  In  the  same  way  the 
no-breakfast  habit  has  a  similar  value,  by  giv- 
ing a  certain  heroic  beginning  to  the  day.  Yet, 
far  from  being  the  advocate  of  an  absolute  denial 
of  the  pleasures  of  the  body  we  would  go  on  record 
as  believing  that  the  body  is  in  the  last  analysis 
the  source  of  all  pleasures  whatsoever,  and  that 
the  object  of  the  highest  idealism  must  be  the 
securing  to  some  creature,  some  time,  bodily  ex- 
hilaration. But  as  highly  flavored  viands  eventu- 
ally pall  upon  the  palate,  and  the  beauty  of  in- 
tense coloring  ceases  to  be  an  astonishment  to  the 
eye,  so,  also,  the  hearing  of  voluptuous  music 
charms  into  an  ecstasy  whose  price  is  some  less 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  343 

exalted  mood  later  on,  and  the  stirring  romantic 
novel  leaves  us  with  little  relish  for  the  dun 
brown  of  everyday  life. 

The  color  scheme  to  which  we  may  believe  that 
the  animal  nervous  system  is  adapted,  is  varia- 
tion of  blues  and  browns  combined  with  almost 
omnipresent  greens ;  this  is  an  induction  from  ob- 
servation of  the  undesecrated  spots  of  Earth, 
and  is  substantiated  by  experiments  performed 
in  testing  the  effects  upon  animals  of  colored 
light — (the  violet  end  of  the  spectrum  being 
depressant,  the  red,  irritant) .  There  run  through 
the  forest  no  gray  streets  crowded  with  crea- 
tures sooty-coated,  there  grow  no  startling  sign 
boards  flaunting  their  colors  in  massed  flamboy- 
ance. The  flavors  of  fruit  food  are  cooling. 
Senses  repose ;  no  dust  fills  the  nostrils,  but  sooth- 
ing aromas  are  everywhere  around;  the  restful- 
ness  of  green,  the  infinite  variation  of  the  crooked 
architecture  of  the  trees,  and  sounds  softer  than 
silence.  If  flowers  here  and  there  gleam  boldly, 
their  brilliance  is  no  useless-  show,  but  a  flag  to 
insects,  nectar-seeking  and  pollen-laden.  If  male 
creatures  strut  in  their  plumage,  or  warble  sweet 
songs  to  their  mates,  their  colors  are  no  assump- 
tion or  conceit,  but  a  means  of  alluring  the  modest 
and  bashful  ones  hidden  among  the  foliage.  All 
color,  all  excitement,  all  taste  is  utilitarian  in 
nature  in  perpetuating  life.  The  Japanese,  alone 
of  the  human  races  recognize  this  fact.12 


1=We  refer  to  the  purpose  of  their  gardens  as  places  of  rest. 


344          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Natural  selections  or  maybe  eugenics  in  the 
course  of  a  millennium  may  remake  mankind  into 
a  race  harmonious  with  all  the  changed  conditions 
of  civilized  existence  but  the  part  of  wisdom  is  to 
recognize  that  our  present  physiology  is  that  of 
the  wild  people  who  dwelt  in  the  woods,  where 
they  seldom  had  excitements  or  luxuries  to  un- 
nerve them.  Our  aim  should  be  to  keep  our  lives 
as  hygienic  as  theirs,  tho  making  use  of  what- 
soever is  truly  good  in  this  complex  age.  Our 
tastes  must  remain  simple.  Horace  Fletcher  has 
shown  that  the  man  who'll  practice  daintiness  in 
eating,  gradually  sloughs  off  habits  like  those  of 
tobacco  and  liquor.  He  proves  indeed  that  "it 
takes  a  good  judge  of  whisky  to  let  it  alone." 

The  pampered  man  becomes  the  moral  coward, 
while  his  more  abstemious  neighbor  develops  a 
quality  of  courage  and  endurance.  Like  all  vir- 
tures,  as  well  as  vices,  the  courage  that  is  needed 
in  crises  is  built  up  slowly  and  laboriously. 

"So  you  are  going  to  let  your  cook  go?" 

"Yes.  Can't  afford  to  keep  her.  I  don't  mind 
the  salary,  but  her  tastes  in  food  are  out  of  my 
reach." 


SECTION  4 

Health  is  the  basis  of  moral  and  intellectual, 
as  it  is  of  physical,  life.  Thus,  for  example,  all  of 
us  have  noticed  that  at  times  of  a  depression  due 
to  fatigue,  we  are  not  capable  of  making  moral 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          345 

decisions  that  we  would  make  when  fresh  from 
a  good  night's  rest,  or  when  we  are  run  down  by 
sickness,  equally  we  have  not  our  normal  moral 
energy.  This  being  so  it  is  suitable  that  we 
should  commence  these  lectures  with  a  discussion 
of  those  ethical  points  which  bear  most  directly 
upon  the  maintenance  of  individual  health.  The 
habits  which  contribute  to  health,  or  its  opposite, 

We  might  conveniently  subdivide  as  those  con- 
cerned with  intake  of  food,  etc.,  and  those  con- 
cerned with  out-going  or  expenditure  of  energy. 

We  shall  find  that  naturalness  and  simplicity 
in  all  things  is  much  the  whole  secret  of  health. 
Hence  no  virtue  can  be  more  important  than  that 
of  Simplicity  of  Tastes. 

"  The  trouble  with  nine  out  of  ten  habitual 
drinkers/  says  W.  T.  Hadley,  Supt.  of  the  Hadley 
Memorial  Home,  at  a  recent  celebration  of  the 
third  anniversary  of  that  institution,  'is  that 
they  have  bad  teeth.  If  your  friend  is  a  drinking 
man  have  him  visit  a  dentist.' ' 

Now  that  nation-wide  prohibition  is  sure  to  be 
enacted,  is  the  time  to  agitate  compulsory  dental 
examination.  Prohibition  can  only  be  a  success 
when  statutes  against  liquor  are  backed  by  the 
force  of  a  public  opinion,  so  if,  in  the  course  of 
human  events,  a  dentally  imperfect  people  de- 
mands its  bottle,  mere  prohibitory  statutes  will 
avail  nothing.  What  the  liquor  interests  have  to 
contend  with  isn't  legislation,  but  the  universal 
passion  to  reform  things  and  the  knowledge  of  the 


346          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

cold  indisputable  facts  which  modern  research, 
has  established  of  the  unredeemed  harmfulness 
of  alcohol.  The  legislation  itself  is  an  unfortu- 
nate feature ;  interferes  with  the  inalienable  right 
of  suicide.  It  would  have  been  better  to  have 
gone  to  the  other  extreme  and  have  established 
free  public  booze  fountains  in  some  remote  spot 
where  the  weak  and  the  oppressed  together  might 
end  their  sorrows.  That,  however,  isn't  the  only 
remedy.  The  vice  of  drink,  the  infantile  instinct 
carried  to  excess  in  the  years  of  maturity,  like 
most  other  vices  thrives  because  it  has  been  com- 
mercialized. The  property  of  a  concern  whose 
business  all  men  know  to  be  an  organized  threat 
to  their  physical  welfare  can  be  protected  only  by 
force,  the  force  of  law,  from  being  sacked  and 
wrecked.  Why  bother,  then,  to  force  temperance 
upon  people.  Why  not  simply  cease  to  employ 
(police)  force  and  legislation  in  protecting  perni- 
cious business  interests.  Outlaw  all  property  used 
for  specified  baleful  purposes;  here's  a  solution 
and  a  suggestion  for  the  long-wished-for  "practi- 
cal program  of  constructive  anarchism."  At  the 
end  of  two  years  (not  to  work  too  great  a  hard- 
ship nor  cause  surfeit  of  rioting)  the  sphere  of 
government  might  shrink  so  as  to  not  include 
police  protection  of  distilleries  and  saloons,  of 
patent  medicine  factories,  or  of  any  person  oper- 
ating them.  At  the  end  of  four  years,  a  still 
further  shrinkage,  so  not  to  include  protection  of 
tobacco  plants,  cigar  stores,  and  breweries.  At 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          347 

the  end  of  six  years  of  this  no-law  method,  pro- 
tection could  be  withdrawn  from  spices,  Spanish 
cooked  foods,  cosmetics,  hair-dye  and  jewelry. 
The  end  of  eight  years  would  usher  in  relief  from 
ill-tempered  cook-ladies,  night-singing  cats,  book- 
agents,  tax  collectors,  and  middle  of  the  road 
hogs.  If  the  movement  survived  its  decennial,  it 
would  show  itself  hardy  enough  to  deny  protection 
to  munition  factory  interests. 

The  largest  stars  and  planets  grow  larger  by 
eating  up  the  little  meteorites  which  come  tumb- 
ling down  from  the  sky,  just  as  the  big  fishes 
in  the  ocean  live  upon  the  smaller  ones,  and  they, 
upon  those  smaller  still.11  Max  Nordau,  the  fa- 
mous apostle  to  the  degenerate,  in  his  book,  "The 
Interpretation  of  History,"  shows  how  the  great 
migrations  of  mankind,  their  wars,  slavery,  and 
other  baleful  institutions,  have  been  due  to  the 
urge  of  hunger.  These  institutions  have  resulted 
from  the  need  of  food  and  the  unwillingness  to 
work  unnecessarily  hard  for  it,  and  since,  in  prim- 
itive society,  success  in  life  was  measured  by  the 
possession  of  a  superfluity  of  food  and  skins,  of 
slaves  enough  so  that  one  need  do  no  menial 
work,  but  hunt  and  fight,  therefore  to  this  day  a 
social  prestige  attaches  to  the  waster  and  the 
idler,  and  to  cruel,  or  at  least  combative  sports. 

Veblen  has  shown  how  "conspicuous  waste"  be- 
came the  ostentation  of  ruling  castes,  who  in  this 


"It's  the  obverse  of  the  tragedy:  "The  big  fleas  have  little  fleas 
upon  their  backs  to  bite  'em;  the  little  fleas  have  littler  fleas,  and  BO 
on  ad  infinitum." 


348          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

way  emphasized  the  difference  between  them- 
selves and  the  common  herd  of  those  who  had  to 
consider  the  expense  of  whatever  they  did.  For- 
tunately the  more  obvious  forms,  at  least  of  dis- 
play are  now  more  apparent  to  a  sophisticated 
world  as  being  but  a  low  form  of  self-advertise- 
ment— exhibitionism  on  a  par  with  that  of  the 
small  child  who  cries  "watch  me"  as  he  performs, 
or  who  prances  naked  into  a  room  full  of  com- 
pany. 

But  whereas  the  vanity  of  the  child  injures 
no  one,  the  extravagance  of  the  man  destroys 
useful  goods  and  forces  others  to  work  at  un- 
necessary tasks. 

Let  no  one  be  deceived  by  the  sophistry  that  to 
consume  needless  luxuries  makes  work  for  un- 
employed persons  and  hence  is  good.  Had  the 
money  which  went  to  buy  luxuries  remained  in 
the  bank,  the  bank  would  have  had  more  money 
to  loan  to  persons  who  wish  to  build  homes  and 
factories,  etc.,  and  hence  to  employ  workmen. 
And  the  money  you  spend  in  the  first  case  ceases 
to  employ  anyone  once  the  luxury  is  made  and 
by  you  consumed.  Whereas  on  the  other  hand 
the  money  the  bank  lends  to  build  a  factory  con- 
tinues to  create  more  wealth,  and  that  to  create 
still  more,  employing  workers  in  increasing  num- 
bers. 

To  praise  mere  consumption  because  it  "gives 
employment  to  people"  is  like  praising  someone 
who  should  hire  a  laborer  to  build  walls  in  the  day 
time  and  knock  them  down  every  night. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Habits  of  close  attention,  thinking  heads, 
Become  more  rare  as  dissipation  spreads, 
Till  authors  hear  at  length  one  general  cry 
Tickle  and  entertain  us,  or  we  die!1 

This  chapter  will  be  given  over  to  a  discussion 
of  Habit. 

If  the  book  were  written  in  less  haste,  here 
we  could  clearly  show  how,  by  self-training,  each 
person  can  step  himself  up  from  phase  to  phase 
of  character  growth,  and  this  to  his  own  advan- 
tage. As  it  is,  we  shall  endeavor  to  demonstrate 
this  as  best  we  can.  As  an  illustration  of  how 
the  principle  would  apply  to  reading,  let's  start 
with  a  person  who  reads  simply  at  random  what 
catches  his  eye — newspaper  head  lines,  adver- 
tisements or  whatever.  At  the  next  higher  stage 
of  development  (the  second)  he'll  be  persuing  that 
which  pleased  by  its  capacity  of  affording  genuine 
satisfaction  rather  than  that  which  fascinated 
simply  because  it  was,  say,  the  novel  of  the  day 
which  everyone  else  was  reading.  The  third 
stage  is  that  of  serious  study  undertaken  delib- 
erately to  advance  us  toward  a  goal;  and  when 
we  have  developed  the  capacity  to  enjoy  this  kind 
of  reading,  each  successive  book  has  all  the  inter- 
est of  a  new  chapter  in  a  "continued"  serial  story. 
The  interest,  even  so,  can  be  immensely  enhanced 

'Comper. 


350          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

(fourth  stage)  if  the  purpose  of  the  reading  is 
increased  efficiency  toward  our  private  ambitions 
not  only,  but  in  the  service  of  others  and  of  a 
cause  greater  than  ourselves. 

SETION  I 

"Books  which  are  no  books."-' 

"How  various  his  employments  whom  the  world  calls 
idle,  and  who  justly  in  return  esteems  that  busy  world 
an  idler  too."3 

It's  easy  to  crack  jokes  at  the  expense  of  others 
whose  slowness  tantalizes  us.  We  say  "waiter, 
while  you're  out,  send  us  a  postcard  occasionally," 
and  laugh,  tho  we  may  be  no  quicker,  ourselves. 

In  the  first  section  we  propose,  after  a  few 
words  upon  the  vice  of  sloth,  to  discuss  certain 
false  assumptions  that  have  been  made  by  per- 
sons pretending  to  psychological  knowledge.  We 
shall  thereby  be  able  to  detect  what  is  false  in 
certain  vain  theories  of  self-improvement. 

An  excellent  article  by  Purington,  in  the  "In- 
dependent" contained  advice  of  the  head  of  a 
huge  manufacturing  concern  outside  whose  doors 
hundreds  of  men  were  waiting  for  employment. 
He  remarked: 

"  'We  shall  engage  perhaps  twenty  per  cent 
of  the  men  outside.  The  other  eighty  per  cent 
we  cannot  use.  Of  the  twenty  per  cent  engaged, 
probably  half  will  leave  or  be  discharged  under 
six  months.  That  is,  only  ten  per  cent  of  the 

=Lamb,   Charles.     Last  Essay  of  Elia.     Detached  Thoughts  on   Books. 
'Cooper. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          351 

men  who  apply  for  a  job  are  able  to  get  and 
keep  it. 

"  'What  is  wrong  with  the  ninety  per  cent?  I 
will  tell  you.  They  don't  know  literally  hundreds 
of  things  that  good  workmen  ought  to  know,  but 
that  most  men  will  not  take  the  time  and  pains 
to  learn. 

"  'They  don't  know  how  to  work ;  we  have  to 
teach  them.  They  don't  know  how  to  think;  we 
try  to  teach  them,  but  as  yet  have  no  reason  to 
be  proud  of  our  success.  They  don't  know  what 
they  can  do  best;  we  may  have  to  transfer  a 
man  a  half  dozen  times  before  he  happens  on  a 
line  of  work  that  really  interests  him.  They  don't 
know  what  or  when  or  how  to  eat;  I  figure  that 
the  average  employee's  working  capacity  is  low- 
ered twenty  per  cent  by  foolish  meal  habits. 
They  don't  know  how  to  live  in  their  homes,  and 
keep  well  for  their  work.  This  company  loses 
$40,000  a  year  from  preventable  illness  of  em- 
ployes, and  the  employes  themselves  lose  more 
than  that.  They  don't  know  where  to  look  for 
technical  knowledge  and  the  solution  of  their 
trade  problems;  our  educational  department  has 
to  answer  for  them  hundreds  of  questions  they 
ought  to  answer  for  themselves,  or  find  answered 
in  a  book  or  magazine  they  should  have  on  file. 
They  don't  know  how  to  plan  their  future  in  this 
company  or  elsewhere;  I  judge  that  perhaps  one 
man  in  fifty  has  clearly  in  mind  a  purpose,  plan, 
picture,  of  his  own  life  work — the  other  forty- 


352          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

nine  men  are  drifting,  empty-eyed,  empty-hearted. 
They  don't  know  why  they  are  living  at  all,  these 
men  who  come  here  for  a  job;  and  looking  for 
work  without  feeling  the  joy  of  work  is  like  pick- 
ing roses  in  the  dark — you  get  more  thorns  than 
flowers.' ' 

So  much  for  the  evil  of  a  want  of  good  habits, 
— only  less  an  evil  than  the  possession  of  bad 
habits.  A  form  of  the  latter  not  sufficiently  dis- 
cussed in  the  Sunday  School  texts,  is  the  carrying 
on  of  the  outworn  customs  of  our  forefathers. 
It  is  in  China  that  this  has  become  the  greatest 
curse.  In  Canton  one  day  we  visited  the  "City 
of  the  Dead."  Here  were  mortuaries  where  new- 
ly-deceased persons  who  could  afford  to  do  so 
might  rest  in  pomp  until  an  auspicious  spot 
were  discovered  for  their  burial.  Coffins  are 
beautifully  lacquered  with  successive  coats  until 
their  originally  rough  surface  becomes  perfect. 
From  the  side  walls  of  the  mortuary  chamber  de- 
pended long  streamers  of  condolence,  presented 
by  friends.  Most  interesting  of  all  were  the 
paper  effigies  of  servants,  of  food,  and  of  "moun- 
tains of  gold  and  silver"  (tinsel)  to  be  burnt  at  the 
final  funeral  service,  in  order  that  the  spirit  of 
the  departed  might  want  nothing. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  Chinese  temples 
is  their  very  general  character  as  resorts  for  the 
care  of  diseases.  "Nothing  under  the  sun  is 
new";  listen  to  how  the  best  medical  practice  of 
today  was  fore-run  by  the  ancient  Chinese,  whose 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          353 

ways  their  modern  descendants  still  imitate. 

A  wealthy  Chinese  woman,  attended  by  her 
maid,  enters  the  temple.3  After  buying  various 
kinds  of  josh-sticks,  they  plant  these  before  the 
altar  and  light  them.  A  well-dressed  young  Chi- 
nese in  the  employ  of  the  temple,  who  has  been 
"sizing  her  up"  steps  forward  to  ask  her  name 
and  importune  her  for  a  donation;  she  offers  one 
dollar  (Mexican)  and  after  holding  out  for  five, 
he  finally  is  contented  with  the  one. 

She  now  takes  in  her  hand  and  shakes  patiently 
a  piece  of  hollow  bamboo  that  contains  scores  of 
little  sticks  with  inscriptions  upon  them.  She 
holds  this  slantingly,  so  that  as  she  shakes  it, 
some  of  the  sticks  work  themselves  up  and  out. 
These  sticks  designate  which  medicines  she  shall 
purchase  from  a  near-by  booth  for  the  cure  of 
her  malady: 

A  young  Chinese  statesman  who  was  travelling 
on  the  same  boat  with  the  present  writer  a  few 
years  ago,  was  interested  in  the  extirpation  of 
religions  from  his  country,  especially  Confucian- 
ism and  Buddhism,  because  of  their  effect  in 
perpetuating  outworn  customs.  Let  us  quote 
here  some  pages5  from  Sinclair's  "Profits  of  Re- 
ligion" on  the  retarding  effects  of  Christianity: 

"Consider  their  prestige  with  the  press  and 
in  politics,  their  hold  upon  literature  and  the  arts, 
their  control  of  education  and  the  minds  of  chil- 


"This  note  is   dated  Dec.  2,   1915. 

'Sinclair,  Upton — The   Profits  of  Religion.     Pp.   55-60. 


354          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

dren,  of  charity  and  the  lives  of  the  poor ;  consider 
all  this,  and  then  say  what  it  means  to  society 
that  such  a  power  must  be,  in  every  new  issue 
that  arises,  on  the  side  of  reaction  and  falsehood." 
'So  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever 
shall  be,'  runs  the  church's  formula. 

"Here  is  the  Reverend  Edward  Massey,  preach- 
ing in  1772  on  'The  Dangerous  and  Sinful  Prac- 
tic  of  Inoculation' ;  declaring  that  Job's  distemper 
was  probably  confluent  small-pox;  that  he  had 
been  inoculated  doubtless  by  the  devil;  that  dis- 
eases are  sent  by  Providence  for  the  punishment 
of  sin ;  and  that  the  proposed  attempt  to  prevent 
them  is  a  diabolical  operation.  Here  are  the 
Scotch  clergy  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  denouncing  the  use  of  choloroform  in 
obstetrics!  because  it  is  seeking  'to  avoid  one  part 
of  the  primeval  curse  on  woman.'  Here  is  Bishop 
Wilberforce  of  Oxford  anathematizing  Darwin: 
'The  principle  of  natural  selection  is  absolutely 
incompatible  with  the  word  of  God,'  And  the 
Bishop  settled  the  matter  by  asking  Huxley 
whether  he  was  descended  from  an  ape  thru  his 
grandmother  or  grandfather. 

"And  you  think  that  conditions  are  changed 
today?  But  consider  syphillis  and  gonorrhea, 
about  which  we  know  so  much,  and  can  do  almost 
nothing;  consider  birth-control,  which  we  are 
sent  to  jail  for  so  much  as  mentioning!  Consider 
the  divorce  reforms  for  which  the  world  is  crying 
— and  for  which  it  must  wait  because  of  St.  Paul ! 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          355 

Realize  that  up  to  date  it  has  proven  impossible 
to  persuade  the  English  Church  to  permit  a  man 
to  marry  his  deceased  wife's  sister!  That  when 
the  war  broke  upon  England  the  whole  nation  was 
occupied  with  a  squabble  over  the  disestablish- 
ment of  the  church  of  Wales!  Only  since  1888 
has  it  been  legally  possible  for  an  unbeliever  to 
hold  a  seat  in  Parliament ;  while  up  to  the  present 
day  men  are  tried  for  blasphemy  and  convinced 
under  the  decisions  of  Lord  Hale,  to  the  effect  that 
'It  is  a  crime  to  deny  the  truth  of  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion  or  to  hold 
them  up  to  contempt  or  ridicule.'  Said  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Horridge,  at  the  West  Riding  Assizes,  1911: 
'A  man  is  not  free  in  any  public  place  to  use  com- 
mon ridicule  on  subjects  which  are  sacred.' 

"And  the  one  essential  to  prosecution  is  always 
that  the  victim  shall  be  obscure  and  helpless; 
never  by  any  chance  is  he  a  duke  in  a  drawing- 
room. 

"A  teacher  of  mathematics  named  Holyoake, 
presumed  to  discuss  in  a  public  hall  the  starvation 
of  the  working  classes  of  the  country.  A  preacher 
objected  that  he  had  discussed  'our  duty  to  our 
neighbor'  and  neglected  'our  duty  to  God' ;  where- 
upon the  lecturer  replied:  'Our  national  Church 
and  general  religious  institutions  cost  us,  upon 
accredited  computation,  about  twenty  million 
pounds  annually.  Worship  being  thus  expensive, 
I  appeal  to  your  heads  and  your  pockets  whether 
we  are  not  too  poor  to  have  a  God.  While  our 


distress  lasts,  I  think  it  would  be  wise  to  put  deity 
upon  half  pay,'  And  for  the  utterance  the  un- 
fortunate teacher  of  mathematics  served  six 
months  in  the  common  Gaol  at  Gloucester! 

"While  men  were  being  tried  for  publishing  the 
'Freethinker,'  the  Premier  of  England  was  Wil- 
liam Edward  Gladstone.  Read  his  efforts  to  prove 
that  the  writer  of  Genesis  was  an  inspired  geolo- 
gist !  This  writer  points  out  in  Nature  'a  grand, 
fourfold  division,  set  forth  in  an  orderly  succes- 
sion of  times :  First,  the  water  populations ;  sec- 
ondly, the  air  population,  thirdly,  the  land  popu- 
lation of  animals;  fourthly,  the  land  population 
consummated  in  man.'  And  it  seems  that  this 
division  and  sequence  'is  understood  to  have  been 
so  affirmed  in  our  time  by  natural  science  that  it 
may  be  taken  as  a  demonstrated  conclusion  and 
established  act.' 

"Hence  we  must  conclude  of  the  writer  of  Gen- 
esis that  'his  knowledge  was  divine !'  Consider  that 
this  was  actually  published  in  one  of  the  leading 
British  monthlies,  and  it  was  necessary  for  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  to  answer  it,  pointing  out  that  so 
far  is  it  from  being  true  that  'a  fourfold  division 
and  orderly  sequence'  of  water,  air  and  land  ani- 
mals 'has  been  affirmed  in  our  time  by  natural 
science,'  that  on  the  contrary,  the  assertion  is 
'directly  contradictory  to  facts  known  to  every- 
one who  is  acquainted  with  the  elements  of  nat- 
ural science.'  The  distribution  of  fossils  proves 
that  land  animals  originated  before  sea-animals, 


357 

and  there  has  been  such  a  mixing  of  land,  sea 
and  air  animals  as  utterly  to  destroy  the  requisi- 
tion of  iDOth  Genesis  and  Gladstone  as  possessing 
a  divine  knowledge  of  Geology. 

"I  have  a  friend,  a  well-known  'scholar,'  who 
permits  me  the  use  of  his  extensive  library.  I 
see  in  the  dim  shadows  walls  lined  from  floor  to 
ceiling  with  decorous  and  grave  looking  books. 
There  are  literally  thousands  of  such,  and  their 
theme  is  the  pseudo-science  of  'divinity.'  I  close 
my  eyes  to  make  the  test  fair,  and  walk  to  the 
shelves  and  take  a  book.  It  proves  to  be  a  modern 
work.  'A  history  of  the  English  Prayer-book  in 
Relation  to  the  Doctrine  of  the  Eucharist.'  I 
turn  the  pages  and  discover  that  it  is  a  study  of 
the  variations  of  one  minute  detail  of  church  doc- 
trine. This  learned  divine — he  has  written  many 
such  works,  as  the  advertisements  inform  us — fills 
up  the  greater  part  of  his  pages  with  foot-notes 
from  hundreds  of  authorities,  arguments  and 
counter-arguments  over  supernatural  subtleties. 
I  will  give  one  sample  of  these  footnotes — asking 
the  reader  to  be  patient: 

"I  add  the  following  valuable  observation,  of  Dean 
Goode:  ('On  Eucharist,'  II  p.  757.  See  also  Archbishop 
Ware  in  Gibson's  'Preservative,'  vovl.  X,  chap.  II).  'One 
great  point  for  which  our  devines  have  contended,  in 
opposition  to  Romish  errors,  has  been  the  reality  of  that 
presence  of  Christ's  Body  and  Blood  to  the  soul  of  the 
believer  which  is  affected  thru  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  notwithstanding  the  absence  of  that  Body  and  Blood 
in  Heaven.  Like  the  Sun,  the  Body  of  Christ  is  both  prea- 


358          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ent  and  absent;  present,  really,  and  truly  present,  in  one 
sense— that  is,  by  .the  soul  being  brought  into  immediate 
communion  with — but  absent  in  another  sense — that  is 
as  regards  the  contiguity  of  its  substance  to  our  bodies. 
The  authors  under  review,  like  the  Romanists,  maintain 
that  this  is  not  a  Real  Presence,  and  assuming  their  own 
interpretation  of  the  phrase  of  divines  who,  though  using 
the  phrase,  and  its  misapplication  by  the  Church  of  Rome, 
have  induced  many  of  our  divines  to  repudiate  it,  etc.'  " 

"Realize  that  of  the  work  from  which  this  Val- 
uable observation'  is  quoted,  there  are  at  least 
two  volumes,  the  second  volume  containing  not 
less  than  757  pages!  Realize  that  in  Gibson's 
'Preservative'  there  are  not  less  than  ten  volumes 
of  such  writing!  Realize  that  in  this  twentieth 
century  a  considerable  portion  of  the  mental  ener- 
gies of  the  world's  greatest  empire  is  devoted  to 
that  kind  of  learning!" 

"The  date  upon  the  volume  is  1910.  I  was  in 
England  within  a  year  of  that  time,  and  so  I  can 
tell  what  was  the  condition  of  the  English  people 
while  printers  were  making  and  papers  were  re- 
viewing the  book-stores  were  distributing  this 
work  of  ecclesiastical  research.  I  walked  along 
the  Embankment  and  saw  the  pitiful  wretches, 
men,  women  and  sometimes  children,  clad  in  filthy 
rags,  starved  white  and  frozen  blue,  soaked  in 
winter  rains  and  shivering  in  winter  winds,  home- 
less, hopeless,  unheeded  by  the  doctors  of  divinity, 
unpreserved  by  Gibson's  'Preservative.'  I  walked 
on  Hampstead  Heath  on  Easter  day,  when  the 
population  of  the  slums  turns  out  for  its  one  holi- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          359 

day ;  I  walked  literally  trembling  with  horror,  for 
I  had  never  seen  such  sights  nor  dreamed  of 
them.  These  creatures  were  hardly  to  be  recog- 
nized as  human  beings;  they  were  some  new 
grotesque  race  of  apes.  They  could  not  walk,  they 
could  only  shamble;  they  could  not  laugh,  they 
could  only  leer.  I  saw  a  hand-organ  playing,  and 
turned  away — the  things  they  did  in  their  efforts 
to  dance  were  not  to  be  watched.  And  then  I 
went  out  into  the  beautiful  English  country;  cul- 
tured and  charming  ladies  took  me  in  swift, 
smooth  motor-cars,  and  I  saw  the  pitiful  hovels 
and  the  drink-sodden,  starch-poisoned  inhabitants 
— slum-populations  everywhere,  even  on  the  land ! 

"What  the  Church  means  in  human  affairs  is 
the  rule  of  the  aged  ...  I  look  up  their  ages  in 
Who's  Who,  and  I  find  the  average  age  of  the 
goodly  company  is  seventy.  There  have  been  men 
in  history  who  have  retained  their  flexibility  of 
mind,  at  the  age  of  seventy,  but  these  men  were 
trained  in  science  and  practical  affairs,  never  in 
dead  languages  and  theology.  One  of  the  oldest 
of  the  English  prelates,  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, recently  stated  to  a  newspaper  reporter 
that  he  worked  seventeen  hours  a  day,  and  had 
no  time  to  form  an  opinion  on  the  labor  question. 

"But  that,  you  may  say,  was  a  long  time  ago. 
If  so,  let  us  take  a  modern  country,  turn  to  Rafael 
Shaw's  'Spain  from  Within.' 

"On  every  side  the  people  see  the  baleful  hand 
of  the  Church  interfering  or  trying  to  interfere  in 


360          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

their  domestic  life,  ordering  the  conditions  of  em- 
ployment, draining  them  of  their  hard-won  liveli- 
hood by  trusts  and  monopolies  established  and 
maintained  in  the  interest  of  the  Religious  Or- 
ders, placing  obstacles  in  the  way  of  their  chil- 
dren's education,  hindering  them  in  the  exercise 
of  their  constitutional  rights,  and  deliberately 
ruining  those  of  them  who  were  bold  enough  to 
run  counter  to  priestly  dictation  ... 

"As  to  the  location  of  the  schools,  a  report  of 
the  Minister  of  Education  to  the  Cortes,  the  Par- 
liament of  Spain,  sets  forth  as  follows : 

"More  than  10,000  schools  are  on  hired  prem- 
ises, and  many  of  these  are  absolutely  destitute 
of  hygienic  conditions. 

"There  are  schools  mixed  up  with  hospitals, 
with  cemeteries,  with  slaughter  houses,  with 
stables." 

At  the  beginning  of  our  criticism  of  certain 
widely  spread  theories  about  the  mind,  let  it  be 
said  that  even  so  inspired  a  psychologist  as  Wm. 
James  committed  himself  to  certain  points  of 
view  which  now  are  regarded  as  unsound.  For 
instance,  we  no  longer  can  accept  his  view  that  all 
conduct  is  ideo-motor.  No  more  can  we  agree 
with  him  that  the  best  way  to  break  off  an  old 
habit  is  always  and  necessarily  to  quit  it  abso- 
lutely once  for  all ;  in  the  case  of  morphine  habit 
this  method  may  result  in  stoppage  of  the  heart. 
James'  idea  of  exercising  "the  will"  by  daily 
unpleasant  tasks  also  smacks  of  the  old  faculty 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          361 

psychology.  The  faculty  "was  regarded  as  a  pow- 
er, a  vital  tendency  of  our  organism,  like  a  limb 
on  tentacle  of  the  soul."  This  must  be  borne  in 
mind  by  the  reader  when  he  comes  to  the  lengthy 
quotation  we  shall  give  presently  from  James. 

But  if  so  noted  a  psychologist  sometimes  went 
astray  what  shall  be  said  of  those  commercially- 
ijmpelled  persons  and  schools  whose  advertise- 
ments are  found  in  newspapers  and  magazines? 
Exactly  like  the  testimonials  for  patent  medicines 
are  the  enticing  avowals  of  the.  man  who  is  now 
paid  $50,000  a  year  as  a  result  of  following  the 
exercises  in  somebody's  book,  or  who  has  learned 
to  read  character  at  sight,  or  who  increased  his 
"will  power  in  a  few  hours"  or  "really"  improved 
his  "memory  in  one  evening."  Unfortunately  the 
gains  made  by  pupils  are  only  such  as  any  one  can 
make  in  anything  by  becoming  intensely  inter- 
ested in  it.  The  bases  of  these  systems  have  been 
known  for  many  years,  but  the  extravagant  claims 
made  are  not  borne  out  by  the  tests  of  the  univer- 
sity laboratory,  nor  of  commercial  firms  which 
have  wanted  to  use  them  in  their  employment 
departments. 

We  discussed  in  Chapter  2,  the  division  of  con- 
duct—and of  character— into  two  opposing  types. 
It  now  will  be  logically  in  order  to  take  up  the 
further  division  into  four  or  a  comparatively 
limited  number  of  classifications.  Let's  first  re- 
view at  least  one  effort  of  this  kind  which  is  of 
importance  at  least  historically. 


362          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

To  Miss  Taylor  we  are  indebted  for  the  following 
survey  of  attempts  to  account  for  human  characteristics 
on  the  basis  of  "temperaments." 

First  the  physiological  attempt. 

From  131-210  A.  D.  dates  a  fourfold  division  accord- 
ing to  the  predominance  of  one  of  the  four  "humors"; 
the  blood  giving  sanguine  temperament,  lymph  giving 
the  lymphatic  or  choleric,  yellow  bile  giving  bilious 
or  melancholic,  and  black  bile  giving  atrabilious  or  phleg- 
matic. This  division  is  still  popular  notwithstanding 
that  no  such  thing  as  "black  bile"  exists.  A  later 
defines  the  choleric  as  quick  and  strong,  the  sanguine 
as  quick  and  weak,  the  melancholic  as  slow  and  strong, 
and  the  phlegmatic  as  slow  and  weak. 

The  phrenologists  derived  four  temperaments  from 
the  proportionate  mixture  of  elements  in  the  body.  They 
enumerated : 

1.  Motor    Temperament — Corresponding    to    ancient 
choleric. 

2.  Vital — Corresponding  to  sanguine  and  lymphatic. 

3.  Mental — Corresponding   to   melancholic. 

4.  Balanced   or  Temperate — Corresponding   to   com- 
bination of  1,  2  and  3. 

I  have  failed  to  find  the  actual  chemical  analyses 
upon  which  they  doubtelss  (?)  based  their  theory. 

Kant  enumerated  a  sensitive  type  with  light  blood 
(sanguine),  sensitive  with  thick  blood  (melancholy), 
active  or  volitional  with  hot  blood  (choleric),  and 
active  or  volitional  with  hot  blood  (choleric)  and  active 
or  volitional  with  cold  blood  (phlegmatic).  He  didn't 
trouble  to  follow  up  his  assumption  with  the  blood-chart 
and  thermometer. 

Lotze,  using  the  fourfold  demarkation  based  on  de- 
gree of  strength  and  quickness  derived  from  our  end 
organs,  notes  also: 

1.  Kind  and  degree  of  excitability  for  external  im- 
pression. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          363 

2.  Extent  to  which  the  ideas  excited  reproduce  oth- 
ers. 

3.  Rapidity  with  which  ideas  vary. 

4.  Strength  of  pleasure  and  pain  associated  with  the 
ideas. 

5.  Ease  with   which  external   actions  associate  with 
these  ideas    themselves. 

Lotze  believes  the  sanguine  temperament  typifies 
childhood;  the  sentimental,  youth;  the  choleric,  ma- 
turity; and  the  phlegmatic,  old  age. 

To  certain  entire  nations  also  he  ascribes  one  or  an- 
other temperament;  tho  without  telling  us  how  many 
rods  across  the  border  one  must  go  to  note  the  change. 

Secondly  we  may  consider  the  psychobiological  school. 

Thus  Baldwin  defines  the  temperaments  as  the  char- 
acteristic differences  in  the  emotional  susceptibilities, 
in  the  rapidity  of  their  mental  processes,  and  in  the 
fixity  of  their  conations. 

Lass  classifies  temperaments  on  the  basis  of  heredity 
rather  than  of  environment,  since  a  "disposition" 
maintains  itself  under  great  alternations  in  circum- 
stances. When,  if  ever,  it  appears  greatly  modified,  this 
is  at  the  expense  of  greater  effort  than  is  required  to 
alter  any  mere  habit. 

Joseph  Jastrow  in  an  article  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  reviews  the  various  attempts  made  since  early 
times  to  define  character  and  temperament. 

In  a  book  of  his  own  published  in  1917,  "Character 
and  Temperament,"  he  gives  a  rambling  survey  of 
present-day  general  information  on  the  subject. 

Jastrow  has  temperament  as  a  specialization  of  na- 
ture upon  the  basis  of  common  inheritance;  and  the 
problem  is  to  classify  these  individual  variations  into 
groups.  He  proposes  the  predominance  in  ail  indi- 
vidual of  either  sensitivity  or  activity  or  of  neither  or 
both,  as  a  basis  for  classification,  thus: 
1.  Sensitive-active  type,  or  sanguine. 


364          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

2.  Sensitive-active   or   melancholy. 

3.  Sensitive-active  or  choleric. 

4.  Sensitive-active,   or  phlegmatic. 

Each  of  us  has  a  variety  of  potentialities,  and  whether 
we  develop  one  or  other  of  them  is  due  to  the  selective 
action  of  his  profession  and  other  environment. 

Thirdly,  let's  take  up  the  psycho-physiological  school. 

Wundt's  classification  is  derived  from  the  ancients 
via  Kant;  he  uses  strong  and  quick,  strong  and  slow, 
etc. 

Kulpe    agrees    with    this. 

Hoffding  says  we  must  add  to  these  four  combinations, 
the  tendency  to  one  of  those  great  opposites  of  the 
life  of  feeling,  and  include  the  light  and  the  dark 
temperament.  These  point  to  the  influence  of  vegi- 
tative  functions  upon  the  brain,  where  the  older  four 
show  the  responsiveness  of  the  organism  to  external 
stimuli. 

Ribot  follows  Jastrow  in  his  emphasis  on  sensibility 
and  activity,  but  with  much  subdivision  and  elabora- 
tion of  types.  He  gives: 

1.  Sensitive  temperament. 

1'.     Humble  type. 

2'.      Contemplative  type. 

1".     Irresolute  like  Hamlet. 

§P".     Certain  unproductive  mystics. 

3".     Self-analystics. 
3'.     Emotional   type. 

2.  Active  temperament. 

1',     Vital. 

2C     Intellectually    powerful. 

3.  Lymphatic. 

1'.     Apathetic. 

2'.     Intellectually   powerful. 

1".     Speculative. 

2".     Practical  calculators,  characterized  by 
(!"')   effort,  and   (2"')   inhibition. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          365 

4.     Temperate,  or  mixed.        ...  .:.-._;.; 

1'.     Sensitive-active  (harmonious)  in  (1")  lower* 

(2")   higher,  degree. 

2'.     Lymphatic-active,    unalterable,    "moral." 
3'.     Lymphatic-sensitive     (stoic). 
4'.     Temperate,  "episodic." 

Fourthly,  we  pass  to  the  psychological  type  of  theories. 
Here  stand  today  Yerkes,  Tichener,  Mary  Calkins,  who 
all  regard  temperament  as  a  good  term  for  congenital 
susceptibility  to  emotion  stimuli  and  for  particular  char- 
acter of  response,  and  accept  the  usual  fourfold  divi*. 
sion. 

Fifthly  and  finally  we  come  to  chemical-physical  the- 
ories. 

Seeland,  a  Russian  anthropologist,  rebelling  against 
the  assumed  equality  of  value  to  the  race  of  the  several 
temperaments,  arranges  the  following  hierarchy: 

1.  Strong  or  Postive. 

1'.  Gay,  including  (1  ")  strong  sanguine,  (2") 
weaker,  and  (3")  serene,  2"  phlegmatic,  or 
calm. 

2.  Balanced  or  neutral  "unknown  to  science,  tho  that 
of  the  majority  of  men." 

3.  Weak  or  negative. 

1'.     Pure  melancholic. 

2'.     Nervous,    versatile. 

3'.     Choleric  (rare  outside  of  genius). 

How  much  of  the  above  notes  are  Miss  Taylor's, 
we're  not  sure.  Our  own  notes  on  the  topic,  of 
which  the  earlier  ones  were  taken  in  a  lecture 
course  given  by  Prof.  Jastrow  at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin  back  in  1910,  follow: 

Experiments  on  soldiers  on  a  diet  showed  no  dif- 
ferences in  changes  of  weight,  secretions,  etc.,  could 
be  correlated  with  "sanguinity"  or  "choler"  of  tempera- 
ment. Rejecting  the  chemical  theory,  Seeland  attribute* 


366          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

temperament  to  an  elementary  life  alleged  to  exist  in 
the  tissues  besides  their  general  activity.  The  gay  tem- 
perament would  correspond  to  rapid  and  harmonious 
molecule  vibrations,  etc.  This  recalls  Hartley's  "vibra- 
tinncles"  again,  or  even  Democritus. 

In  sum,  the  great  amount  of  study  which  has  been 
given  to  the  temperaments  by  persons  of  even  the  best 
scientific  standing,  forbids  us  to  pass  the  subject  dis- 
respectfully by.  A  scientific  basis  yet  may  be  found — 
perhaps  in  motor  response  to  the  autonomic  system. 
But  the  work  so  far  done  is  suggestively  at  best  and 
often  becomes  humorous.  When  a  scientist  seriously 
distinguishes  the  "humble"  as  a  temperament,  we  won- 
der whether  "satanic"  or  "ananiac"  won't  come  next. 

An  historical  study  of  various  theories  of  human 
nature,  but  of  which  none  have  really  landed  us  any- 
where, has  been  made  by  Prof.  Joseph  Jastrow,  and 
summarized  by  him  in  an  article  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly.  From  this  survey  Prof.  Jastrow  proceeds 
to  his  own  exposition  of  the  subject  in  his  book,  "Char- 
acter and  Temperament,"  which  covers  well  the  field  of 
modern  theory,  tho  is  not  wholly  happy  in  leaving  his 
readers  with  a  clear-cut  idea  of  its  contents.  We  al- 
ready have  given  attention  to  one  of  the  theories  upon 
which  he  lays  much  stress,  that  of  the  four  tempera- 
ments. But  from  early  times  a  more  multiform  classi- 
fication of  human  motives  than  has  been  desired.  An 
attempt  to  supply  this  was  and  is  made  by  the  astrolo- 
gers, palmists,  phrenologists,  physiognomists  and  char- 
acter-readers or  fortune  tellers  of  every  ilk,  clime,  and 
time. 

As  the  outstanding  example  of  the  hasty  generaliza- 
tion to  which  an  excess  of  curiosity  may  lead,  consider 
the  prematurely  born  pseudo-science  of  character-read- 
ing. We  abstract  from  Prof.  Jastrow. 

There  appears  to  be  little  hope  of  the  refinement  or 
discovery  of  a  shortcut  method  of  reading  character  di- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          367 

rect  from  human  measurements.*  To  begin  with,  the 
very  term  character  itself  isn't  the  designation  of  any 
tangible  fact,  but  only  a  convenient  way  of  referring  to 
certain  phases  of  psychology. 

Then,  secondly,  so  much  of  characters  that  strike  us 
as  individual  are  in  actuality  group  traits,  and  super- 
ficial. It's  possible  to  fathom  the  man  only  after  it  is 
proven  possible  to  fathom  the  group.  The  apparent 
qualities  that  appear  in  his  achievements  are  largely 
resultant  on  interests  pushed  to  the  front  by  the  ideals 
of  the  group,  these  ideals  of  course  being  in  turn  a 
function  of  the  kind  of  heroes  the  group  feels  need  of  at 
any  particular  age. 

Thirdly,  the  "character"  idea  has  been  worked  for  all 
it  was  worth  on  account  of  its  moral  availability,  as 
where  in  the  bible  certain  types  are  held  up  to  teach 
lessons,  and  show  the  play  of  the  "ethical." 

Fourthly,  an  over-emphasis  on  the  possibility  of  char- 
acter-reading inevitably  has  grown  out  of  man's  im- 
memorial unwillingness  to  accept  things  merely  without 
accounting  for  them. 

The  wonder  excited  by  new  discoveries  in  science  at 
about  the  period  of  the  rennaissance  served  to  heighten 
the  natural  credulity  of  the  middle  ages,  and  interest 
in  the  study  of  character  was  revived  by  Carau  and 
Baptista  de  la  Porta.s  It  centered  about  Lavater  (1741- 
1801),  a  clergyman,  who  building  upon  morphological 
facts  supplied  by  his  friend  Goethe,  founded  the  "sci- 
ence" of  physiognomy.  A  greater  influence,  however, 
was  exerted  by  the  bombastic  Herder,  author  of  the 
anonymous  "Secret  Diary  of  a  Father,"  and  who  found 
enormous  popularity  in  supplying  the  demand  for  handy 
recipes  of  a  more  trashy  character  than  had  been  coun- 
tenanced by  the  credulous  but  devout  Lavater.  Franz 
Joseph  Gall  (1757-1858),  the  founder  of  Phrenology, 
appealed,  owing  to  his  reputation  as  an  anatomist,  to 
an  entirely  different  audience;  nevertheless,  scientific 


368          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

men  refused  to  accept  this  vagary  of  his  and  Spurtzheim's 
as  set  forth  in  the  "Anatomy  of  the  Nervous  System  and 
of  the  Brain  in  Particular."  After  his  death  his  tenets 
became  greatly  corrupted.  Gall  and  Spurtzheim  trav- 
elled Europe  extensively,  beginning  each  lecture  with 
an  exhibition  of  their  marvelous  skill  in  dissecting  the 
brain  and  giving  a  learned  dissertation;  then  they  car- 
ried over  the  prestige  so  gained  into  the  other  field. 
Gall  had  a  wonderful  collection  of  head-moulds;  it 
was  the  age  of  the  beginning  of  anthroponetry. 

See  also  Benton,  Anatomy  of  melancholy. 

Spurtzheim  had  real  psychological  insight  and  recog- 
nized a  difference  between  fundamental  and  superficial 
qualities.  Gall  named  24  faculties,  Spurtzheim  37 
"propensities"  and  "sentiments."  Almost  as  good  as 
the  previous  ideas  of  John  Locke! 

Now  comes  the  advent  of  charlatans.  Manuals  ignore 
the  sources  of  their  lore,  regardless  of  the  fact  that 
Spurtzheim  rejected  "the  four  temperaments,"  etc.  We 
read  of  "the  architectural  nose,  like  a  Greek  column," 
etc.  We  abandon  adherence  to  any  kind  of  system. 
Faculties  are  located  all  over  the  face,  as  well  as  over 
the  brain.  The  mass  of  scientists  opposed  the  movement 
and  James  Braid,  the  first  scientific  hypnotist,  lost  in 
this  way  his  prestige;  he  threw  subjects  into  trance, 
and  pressed  organs,  later  he  recognized  his  error. 

Thus  has  attempt  at  a  study  of  character  and  tempera- 
ment been  swamped  by  this  impatient  attempt  to  storm 
science,  and  get  conclusions  before  proof. 

In  the  19th  century  Humbolt,  Curier  and  others  drew 
attention  to  individual  differences  till  finally  it  became 
clear  that  the  nervous  system  was  at  bottom  of  all 
characteristics.  So  long  as  we  couldn't  tell  the  functions 
of  the  larger  parts  of  the  nerve  system  it  was  evident  we 
couldn't  go  into  details  to  the  extent  that  phrenology 
pretended  to  have  done. 

As  an  example  of  a  more  worthy  attempt  than  most 
to  defend  one  of  those  pseudo-sciences  which  once  quite 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULN'SS  369 

overcame  popular  (untrained)  criticism  -let  us  review 
a  chapter  on  "The  Neglect  of  Phrenology,"  written  by 
a  man  whose  credulity  on  this  topic  too  much  eclipsed 
in  academic  circles  the  lustre  of  his  real  contributions 
to  science — A.  R.  Wallace.  Our  criticism  may  show 
the  reader  how  easily  there  may  be  formulated  for 
astrology,  palmistry,  physiognomy,  telepathy,  theosophy, 
theology,  or  what  not  an  argument  able  to  pass  muster 
even  with  persons  of  scientific  attainment  if  they  be  not 
versed  in  the  mechanism  of  minds.  But  to  Wallace: 
the  interspersed  numbers  in  brackets  are  for  reference 
in  the  criticism  which  follows  his  account: 

"In  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  Dr.  'Gall 
*  *  *  rediscovered  the  facts  *  *  *  that  the  brain  is  the 
organ  of  the  mind  that  different  parts  of  the  brain  are 
connected  with  different  mental  and  physical  manifesta- 
tions (1),  and  that,  other  things  being  equal  (2),  size 
of  the  brain  and  of  its  various  parts  is  an  indication  of 
mental  power.'  He  became  certain  that  'strongly  marked 
peculiarities  of  character  or  talent  (3)  were  associated 
with  constant  peculiarities  in  the  form  of  the  head'  (4). 
He  painstakingly  made  'collections  of  skulls  and  casts 
of  skulls  of  persons  having  special  mental  character- 
istics' (5),  'made  comparisons  of  form  and  size  with 
mental  faculties'  (6),  etc.  He  began,  in  1796,  lecturing, 
taking  Dr.  Spurtzheim  through  Europe,  in  1807.  Spurtz- 
heim  lectured  in  Great  Britain  from  1813  to  1817. 
Through  him  George  Combe  became  interested  and  began 
'his  long  course  of  personal  observation  and  study  which 
rendered  him  the  best  English  exponent  of  the  science.' 
'His  great  reputation  as  a  religious,  social,  and  educa- 
tional reformer  and  philosophical  thinker  (7)  led  to 
his  being  welcomed  in  the  best  social,  scientific,  and 
political  circles.  But  *  *  *  phrenology  *  *  *  was 
*-*.*  rejected  by  the  great  bulk  of  the  scientific  and 
literary  men  of  his  time'." 

Gall,  Spurtzheim,  and  Combe  *  *  *  "studied  the  skull, 


370          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

its  varying  thicknesses  in  different  parts  and  at  dif- 
ferent ages,  as  well  as  under  the  influence  of  disease. 
And  it  was  only  after  making  allowance  for  every  sort 
of  uncertainty  or  error  (8)  that  they  announced  the 
possibility  of  determining  character  *  *  *  (9),  often 
(10)  with  marvelous  exactness  (11).  Surely  this  was 
a  scientific  mode  of  procedure  (12),  and  the  only  sound 
method"  (13). 

Combe  examined  phrenologically  the  heads  of  several 
patients  at  the  Newcastle  Lunatic  Asylum,  in  1835, 
Mr.  Mackintosh,  the  Surgeon-Superintendent  of  the 
asylum,  having  already  noted  down  their  characteris- 
tics. In  the  five  cases  here  given  there  were  no  dis- 
crepancies between  the  reports  of  the  two  men,  and  such 
striking  parallels  in  each  case  as  the  following: 

Phrenologist's  Report.  Superintendent's  Report- 

1.  HOPE     small,     MORAL 
FACULTIES       deficient 

(14).  Money   mania,   wealth. 

2.  ACQUISIT  I  V  E  N  E  S  S 

enormously  large   (15).  A  Proselvte  Jew5  wil1  lea<* 

3.  FIRMNESS,     SBLF-ES-  the  Jews  tO  the  con(lue8t 
TEEM  large    (16).  of  EnSland- 

4.  Organ       of       NUMBER  Dementia>  perpetually  em- 
(17)   exceedingly  large.  ployed  wjth  figureg  and 

5.  HOPE  extremely  small;  with  arithmetic. 
destructiveness        (18), 

excessively   large.  Suicidal  monomania. 

At  another  asylum,  with  more  explicit  phrenological 
readings,  the  history  of  each  of  three  cases  was  clearly 
indicated  by  the  phrenologist.  Also  in  Newcastle  Jail, 
the  same  thing  was  shown  in  several  cases,  of  which 
three  are  given.  Dr.  Elliotson  examined,  as  a  test  for 
a  phrenological  society,  the  skull  of  a  person  to  him 
unknown.  The  correspondence  between  the  character 
outlined  and  the  man's  history  was  remarkably  con- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          371 

vincing.  A  phrenologist  examined  one  hundred  forty- 
eight  convicts  under  charge  of  a  Navy  Surgeon  previous 
to  a  voyage  to  New  South  Wales,  giving  the  Surgeon 
his  memoranda  for  comparison  with  the  traits  shown 
during  the  voyage.  After  the  four-months'  voyage  the 
Surgeon  reported  that  the  phrenologist  was  right  in 
every  case  but  one,  and  that  the  phrenologist's  report 
enabled  the  officer  to  put  in  custody  malcontents  who 
had  planned  a  mutiny  (19). 

Archbishop  Whatley  sent  a  cast  of  his  own  head  to 
three  different  phrenologists,  and  received  three  har- 
monious and  accurate  reports,  with  revelation  of  at  least 
one  trait  known  only  to  the  subject  himself.  Wallace 
submits  the  delineation  given  of  his  own  character  by 
phrenologists,  and  concludes  that  the  corroboration  of 
facts  to  insight  is  convincing  (20). 

Phrenology  seems  easy  but  is  very  difficult,  as  one 
must  be  skilled  in  "detecting  the  comparative  size  of 
the  organs  *  *  *  and  in  estimating  the  complicated 
results  produced  by  the  various  combinations  of  or- 
gans as  influenced  by  temperament,  education,  and  so- 
cial position"  (21). 

Dr.  John  Elliotson,  founder  of  the  Phrenological  As- 
sociation, was  the  chief  defender  of  operations  during 
mesmeric  trance,  "for  supporting  and  practicing  which 
his  professorship  was  taken  from  him"  (22). 

Objection  to  the  detailed  classification  of  the  mental 
faculties,  and  to  the  names  given  to  the  several  or- 
gans, is  the  same  as  to  the  nomenclature  in  other  sci- 
ences, as  in  geology  (23).  There  is  room  for  improve- 
ment in  the  enumeration  of  the  mental  faculties,  but 
not  by  those  who  classify  from  their  own  consciousness, 
which  does  not  reveal  the  brain-organs  on  which  the 
faculties  depend  (24). 

No  scientific  objector,  as  Combe  urged,  "was  able  to 
give  any  knowledge  of  the  relations  of  the  mind  and 
brain  by  other  means"  (25). 


372 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


\  In  .  1870.  several  Continental  physiologists  and  Pro- 
fessor Ferrier,  in  England,  began  experiments  on  the 
brains  of  living  animals,  and  by  galvanic  currents  local- 
ized the  functions  of  the  brain  in  producing  muscular 
movements.  These  facts  in  no  wise  preclude  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  brain's  being  the  center  for  initiating  ideas 
as  well. 

Examples  showing  the  "correspondence  of  the  motor- 
areas  of  Ferrier  with  the  phrenological  organs  of  which 
the  particular  motions  are  the  natural  expression": 


Ferrier. 

Excitation  of  a  certain 
area  elevated  the  cheeks 
and  angles  of  the  mouth 
with  closure  of  the  eyes. 
No  other  region  pro- 
duced the  same  effect. 
The  expression  of  joy  or 
amazement  is  the  draw- 
ing back  of  the  corners 
of  the  mouth.  The 
earliest  symptoms  of 
general  paralysis  of  the 
insane,  which  is  almost 
always  accompanied  by 
optimism  and  delusions 
of  wealth,  etc.,  is  the 
trembling  at  the  corners 
of  the  mouth  and  the 
outer  corners  of  the 
eyes. 

Facial  movements. 
Center    producing    mo- 
tions    of     the     tongue, 
cheek-pouches,  and  jaws 


in  monkeys,  exactly  as 
in  tasting. 

4,  Center  of  power  of  see- 
ing and  attending  to 
definite  objects  (not 
the  center  of  vision, 
which  is  situated  in  an- 
other part  of  the  brain) ; 
the  outward  manifesta- 
tion, a  fixed  gaze. 

Phrenological    Organ. 

1.  The    brain    center    cor- 
responds     in      position 
with     the      organ       of 
HOPE,   whose    manifes- 
tation    is     cheerfulness 
(26). 

2.  Organ    of    IMITATION, 
which    gives    power    of 
mimicry   (27). 

3.  Organ   of   GUSTATIVE- 
NESS    (28). 

4.  Organ       of       CONCEN- 
TRATIVENESS  (29). 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          373 

I.  Centers  for  motions  in-         5.  Organ    of    DESTRUC- 
dicating  anger;  in  cats,  TIVENESS  (perhaps 

opening  of  mouth,  with  badly  named)    (30). 

spitting,  and  lashing  of 
tail. 

This  correspondence  is  remarkable  "confirmation  as 
regards  most  of  the  motor-centers. 

"The  motions  of  parts  of  the  body  resulting  from 
stimulations  of  various  brain-centers  were  really  the 
physical  expression  of  mental  emotions  *  *  *  long  since 
assigned  to  the  phrenological  organs  situated  in  the 
same  parts  of  the  brain"  (31). 

The  main  principles  of  phrenology,  once  denied,  but 
which  now  form  part  of  a  recognized  science,  are! 

"1.     The  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind"    (32). 

"2.  Size  is,  other  things  being  equal,  a  measure  of 
power"  (33). 

"3.  The  brain  is  a  congeries  of  organs,  each  having  its 
appropriate  faculty"  (34). 

"4.  The  front  of  the  brain  is  the  seat  of  our  percep- 
tive and  reflective  faculties;  the  top,  of  our  higher  senti- 
ments; the  back  and  sides,  of  our  animal  instincts." 
(Now  all  physiologists  admit  that  this  general  division 
is  correct.)  (35.). 

"5.  The  form  of  the  skull  during  life  corresponds 
so  close  to  that  of  the  brain  that  it  is  possible  to  de- 
termine the  proportionate  development  of  various  parts 
of  the  latter  by  an  examination  of  the  former."  (Now 
admitted  by  all  anatomists.) 

Quite  aside  from  the  fact  that  the  Zurich  neurologist 
Molokoff  has  somewhat  successfully  attacked  the  whole 
extreme  theory  of  brain  centers,  some  chief  flaws  in 
Wallace's  imposing  argument  are  the  following: 

(1)  But  whether  these  parts  of  the  brain  connect 
with  the  type  of  functions  claimed  by  Gall  is  the  point 
in   dispute. 

(2)  "Other  things"    (than  the  size  of  the  brain  or 


374          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

organ)  never  are  "equal."     So  of  what  value  could  this 
test  be? 

(3)  The  trouble  is  that  phrenologists  assume  gratui- 
tously  unit   traits    "of   character    or   talent"    to    corre- 
spond to  certain  names  which  language  happens  to  have 
developed.     The   unlikelihood   of  any  such  correspond- 
ence in  fact  should  be  evident  when  we  consider  how 
the  meanings  of  words  change  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration— must  we  assume  a  parallel  evolution  pari  passu 
of  the  units  of  human  "character  or  talent?" 

(4)  The   peculiarities   of  the   head   are   "constant." 
But  "character  or  talent"  is  sometimes  enormously  al- 
tered under  the  tutelage  of  outward  events  and  the  ma- 
turing of  inner  processes. 

05)  As  the  characteristics  of  each  person  were 
known  to  the  examiner  whom  they  had  interested  to 
the  point  of  procuring  the  skull,  this  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  bias  his  results.  We  usually  find  what  we 
eagerly  hope  to  find. 

(6)  The  crux  of  the  whole  matter  is  here:  there  are 
no  mental  faculties.     For  example,  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  "the  memory" — there  are  innumerable  specific  mem- 
ories— for  numbers,  for  faces,  for  names,  for  places,  for 
types  of  boats,  for  types  of  locomotives — as  many  as1  a 
man's  interests,  and   as   impossible   even   to   name   and 
classify.     But  we  shall  discuss  this  at  length  later. 

(7)  Spurtzheim's  achievement  in  certain  fields  is  no 
voucher  for  correctness  in  another. 

(8)  "Making   allowances    for   every   sort    of    uncer- 
tainty" is  a  sweeping  claim.     Too  sweeping,  as  we  think 
we  shall  show.     How  can  a  man  know  he  has  allowed 
for  every  sort? 

(9)  Character  then  is  only  physical,  and  independent 
even  of  the  connections  formed  between  one  center  and 
the  next  by  the  habits  of  life,  to  say  nothing  of  the  re- 
finement of  abilities  through   culture,   the  alteration   of 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          375 

one's    whole   philosophy   through    the    acquisition    of    a 
new  viewpoint,  or  the  sway  of  a  great  passion? 

(10)  "Often"   covers  a   multitude   of  inexactnesses. 

(11)  Who  was  referee  of  the  exactness? 

(12)  Scientific  perhaps  so  far  as  it  went. 

(13)  If  this  is  the  only  sound  method  perhaps  what 
we  need   is   patience  to   wait  for   one  more  sound. 

(14),   (15),  and   (18)      Not  highly  hazardous  guesses 
in  the  case  of  a  criminal. 

(16)  Why  measure  a  man's  head  for  what  can  more 
easily  be  read  from  his  mannerisms? 

(17)  What  becomes  of  the  "organ"  in  child  prodi- 
gies who  suddenly  acquire   or  as  suddenly  lose  a   spe- 
cialized ability?     Does  an  "organ"  in  the  one  case  sud- 
denly puff  up,  and  in  the  other  case  suddenly  collapse 
flat? 

(19)  Marvelous!     Lombrasso  and  the  whole  anthro- 
pometric  school  of  criminologists  have  worked  for  dec- 
ades  and   measured   thousands   and   thousands   of   cases 
in  the  endeavor  to  establish  some  such  correspondences 
as  these.    To  be  able  to  do  so  would  immensely  facilitate 
the   work   of   the   authorities;    yet   this   school   is   quite 
discredited. 

(20)  Whatley  and  Wallace  were  well  known  char- 
acters.     Had    casts    of    obscure    and    unknown    persons 
been  submitted  for  examination,  the  coincidence  would 
have  been  more  remarkable. 

(21)  This  is  really  shameless.     A  loophole  provided 
for  every  failure,  and  this  pretended  science  is  seen  to 
be  negligible  compared  with  the  cleverness  or  otherwise 
of  the  person  who  applies  it.     When  "temperament"  as 
well  as  "education  and  social  position"  are  known,  the 
remaining  task  for  phrenology  is  not  severe. 

(22)  Too  much  sometimes  is  made  of  these  preju- 
dices, bad  as  prejudice  always  is.     The  early  history  of 
"mesmerism"   was   so   full   of   charlatanry   that  it's  no 
wonder   careful   men   were   skeptical   of  the  whole   sub- 


376          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ject.  We  shall  study  hypnotism  later;  suffice  it  that 
plenty  of  struggling  young  surgeons  today  would  jump 
at  the  chance  of  notoriety  thru  anaesthetising  by  hypno- 
tism, had  this  method  proven  dependable.  These  same 
pioneer  phrenologists  would  hypnotize  a  subject,  and 
in  his  hearing  say  to  the  audience,  "You  will  now  note 
that  when  I  press  (such  an)  organ,  the  subject  will 
be  struck  by  (such  an)  emotion" — thereby  "proving" 
their  contentions. 7 

(23)  Naming  and  classifying  objective  things  is  be- 
yond   all    comparison    easier    than    doing    the    same    to 
things  subjective. 

(24)  Two  false  assumptions  are  (1)   that  there  are 
"faculties"  and    (2)    that  "organs"  in  the  brain  can  be 
sharply  distinguished  at  all. 

(25)  On  the  contrary,  physiologists  have  been  very 
ingenious  in  devising  other  means  of  studying  the  so- 
called  "relations  of  the  mind  and  brain,"  as  elsewhere 
we  shall  see. 

(26)  Most  other  emotions  also  manifest  partly  thru 
the  facial  muscles.     Conversely,  hope  and  cheerfulness 
are  essentially  more  related  to  the  internal  organs  and 
glands. 

(27)  Mimicry  isn't  limited  to  facial  expression. 

(28)  "Gustativeness"   to  be  a  matter   of  sensation, 
not,   as  here  implied,   of   motivation. 

(29)  This   "center"   is   really   a   bony   protuberance, 
most   prominent   in   the   apes,   who    aren't    famous    for 
"concentrativeness."     On   the   other   hand,  it  has   been 
abundantly  shown  that  concentration  of  various  kinds  is 
essentially  related  to  the  temporarily  dominant  interest. 

(30)  More  than  badly  named,  we  should  say,  since 
ail  the  outer  muscles  of  the  body  are  likely  to  be  in- 
volved in  "destructiveness,"  and  since  anger  has  been 
shown   by  Cannon*   to  be  related   essentially  with   the 
Adrenal  gland. 


From   Jastrow. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          377 

(32)  and  (33)  The  truth  contained  in  these  state* 
ments  did  not  originate  with  phrenology. 

(34)  Discussed  above. 

(35)  Absolutely  not.     There's  no  school  of  physio- 
logical  psychology    which    designates    the   front    of    the 
brain  as  a  locus  of  "perceptive  faculties"  nor  the  top  as 
locus  of  "our  higher  sentiments."     One  modern  tendency 
even  is  to  regard  the  fore-brain  as  an  emotional  center 
rather  than  an  intellectual. 

In  the  same  way  as  we  have  discussed  Wallace's  book 
we  might  take  up  with  you  other  works  upon  the  same 
pseudo-science,  or  on  others.  It's  a  fact  that  many  bod- 
ily functions  have  locatable  brain  centers;  phrenology 
is  a  scientifically  unjustifiable  belaboring  of  that  fact. 
It's  a  fact  that  every  object  in  the  universe  has  some 
minute  influence  over  every  other  (thru  gravity,  etc.); 
astology  is  the  unjustifiable  belaboring  of  this  fact. 
It's  sure  that  our  habits  of  life  stamp  certain  creases 
upon  our  hands  and  faces;  palmistry  and  physiognomy 
are  unjustifiable  belaborings  of  this  fact.  It's  true  that 
the  theory  of  vibration  has  been  of  much  use  in  science, 
also  true  that  people  get  "hunches"  and  catch  one  an- 
other's feelings  by  unconscious  processes;  some  of  the 
literature  of  New  Thot  is  a  belaboring  of  these  facts. 
Any  one  of  these  pseudo-sciences  can  give  a  remarkable 
set  of  testimonials  of  its  success.  The  question  is,  was 
it  the  technique  based  upon  the  "science"  which  achieved 
the  result,  or  was  it  the  personality  of  him  who  made 
use  of  it?  Was  it  by  rigid  adherence  to  the  rules  of 
card-reading  that  the  gypsy  so  accurately  read  your 
character,  or  were  those  rules  only  a  foil  for  the  opera- 
tions of  her  shrewd  intuition?  Was  it  thru  his  correct 
theory  and  technique  that  the  practitioner  of  some  new 
cult  healed  you,  or  by  some  more  subtle  influence  which 
still  makes  his  explanations  ridiculous?  The  difference 
is  profound  and  is  important  for  so  long  as  our  founda- 


378          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tion  is  in  the  least  insecure  everything  built  upon  it  is  a 
source  of  danger. 

"No  one  can  deny,"  says  John  Newman  in  a  news- 
paper article,  "The  amazing  exactness  with  which  a  for- 
tune teller  appears  to  be  able  to  read  the  character  and 
to  describe  the  past  events  in  the  life  of  the  person  who 
has  come  asking  to  have  his  or  her  'fortune  told.'  The 
ability  is  so  general  that  the  scientific  basis  of  it  cannot 
be  hard  to  follow.  Like  most  elements  of  supposed 
mystery  it  is  due  to  a  very  simple  set  of  circumstances. 

"Every  emotion  is  definitely  accompanied  by  physical 
changes  more  or  less  marked,  and  this  is  so  true  that  it 
is  impossible  even  to  imitate  these  emotions  of  love, 
fear,  revenge,  anger,  etc.,  without  these  physical  changes 
appearing  also.  The  variation  in  the  size  of  the  pupil 
of  the  eye  is  one  of  the  most  infallible  of  these,  always 
occurring  with  every  change  of  mood  and  thought,  and 
always  being  a  purely  involuntary  act.  One  cannot  in- 
crease or  decrease  the  size  of  the  pupil  of  the  eye  at 
will,  but  at  the  same  time  one  cannot  be  angry  without 
the  pupil  contracting,  one  cannot  be  filled  with  passionate 
ardor  without  the  pupil  enlarging. 

"Surprise,  such  as  is  felt  by  the  patron  or  the  client 
at  the  unexpected  guess  of  a  fortune-teller,  finds  ready 
response  in  the  blood  pressure,  and  the  palmistry  ex- 
pert, in  addition  to  other  signs,  has  a  sure  guide  in  the 
pulsation  of  the  blood  when  he  or  she  is  nearing  a  dis- 
closure. A  slight  movement  of  the  eyes,  a  deep  breath, 
a  quickened  pulse,  a  dampening  of  the  skin  reveals  to 
the  mind-reader  that  a  hidden  thought  is  on  the  verge 
of  being  revealed  *  *  *  It  is  the  same  principle  that 
makes  some  men  poker  experts.  They  have  learned  to 
read  the  tiny  involuntary  changes  which  chase  them- 
selves unbidden  over  the  faces  and  gestures  of  opponents. 
No  amount  of  self-control  can  prevent  these  changes  of 
expression,  for  they  are  outside  the  power  of  the  will. 

"But  so  many  evils  have  attended  these  manifestations 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          379 

from  the  time  of  the  late  M.  Bishop  to  my  own  day, 
such  a  widespread  cult  has  arisen  through  which  almost 
any  lying  frauds  can  be  palmed  off  on  deluded  masses, 
that  the  public  has  every  right  to  know  there  is  not  a 
single  strange,  unusual,  more  than  prosaic  explanation 
for  the  whole  deceptive  system  of  telepathy  and  mind 
reading.  I  will  give  here  and  now,  a  test  which  any 
person  can  apply  to  any  mind  reader,  which,  simple  as 
it  is  in  its  requirements,  will  force  immediate  exposure 
of  his  claims. 

"Ask  him  to  tell  you  what  you  intend  to  do  tomorrow. 

"Unless  you  yourself  have  in  some  way  given  the 
information  to  him  or  a  confederate,  he  will  fail,  and 
fail  utterly.  He  will  fail  because  there  has  never  been 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  human  race  a  single  genuine 
instance  of  mind  reading. 

"Here  is  another  test  for  demonstrating  that  every 
mind  reader  does  not  read  minds,  but  reads  signs: 

"Try  to  find  a  single  instance  of  mind  reading  where 
the  thing  has  been  successfully  done  that  has  not  had 
the  thought,  which  was  read,  translated  into  some  word 
or  action  by  the  subject  himself.  You  will  find  not 
one  because  not  one  has  ever  existed.  For  the  so-called 
mind  reader  to  tell  you  what  was  in  your  mind  he  must 
have  your  thought  outwardly  manifested  by  you  in  such 
a  manner  that  some  one  of  his  trained  and  expert  senses 
can  interpret  it  as  plainly  as  if  you  had  spoken  the  words 
in  his  ear. 

"It  is  merely  because  he  begins  with  senses — the  eye 
chiefly — that  are  more  acute  than  those  of  the  ordinary 
civilized  man,  that  he  is  able  to  display  acumen  which 
to  less  finely  endowed  persons  looks  like  telepathic  in- 
sight into  their  brain  and  heart.  Upon  his  original 
gifts  he  grafts  incessant  practice  and  an  intensely  nerv- 
ous concentration  which  practically  doubles  their  effi- 
ciency, so  exhausting  is  the  strain  of  some  of  the  'mind- 
reading'  seances,  purely  because  of  the  operator's  con- 


380          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ceiitratlon  of  nervous  energy,  that  they  often  leave  liini 
weak  -as- if  from  some  terrific  struggle;"  s 

MTich  criticism  which  science  must  meet  is  owing  to 
the  distortion  of  her  hypotheses  by  cultists,  who  wish  to 
bask  in  her  prestige — even  while  they  revile  her  as  "ma- 
terialistic." Usually  these  cults  are  themselves  more 
materialistic  than  science,  in  their  clumsy  attempts  to 
revive  explanations  of  mental  processes  in  outworn  terms 
of  vibrations,  waves,  etc.  If  eventually  terms  of  move- 
ment for  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  is  found  acceptible, 
it  can  never  be  as  crude  a  one  as  those  now  printed  in 
popular  "methaphysical"  circles  so  called.  And  while 
as  the  science  of  biology  is  becoming  chemical,  the  sci- 
ence of  psychology  is  becoming  physiologial,  still  the  lat- 
ter is  tending  directly  away  from  that  premature  type 
of  materialism  which  ignored  the  meaningful  nature  of 
conduct.  In  C.  G.  Jung's  "Psychology  of  the  Uncon- 
scious" (p.  315)  are  some  data  worth  quoting  here.  In 
former  ages  the  mind  was  regarded  as  a  substance,  the 
forces  of  nature  were  personified,  and  mental  disorders 
were  the  work  of  evil  spirits.  Even  today  this  conception 
has  a  certain  credence  and  expression,  the  classical  ex- 
ample being  that  of  the  elder  Pastor  Blumhardt's  driving 
out  :the  devil,  in  the  famous  case  of  Gottlieb  in  Deltus. 
Yet  in  the  sixteenth  century  at  the  Julius  Hospital  in 
Wurzburg,  mental  patients  received  humane  treatment 
side  by  side  with  the  physically  ill.  With  the  coming 
of  the  first  scientific  ideas,  the  barbaric  personification 
of  unknown  power  disappeared;  but  the  underlying  con- 
ception that  "every  misfortune  was  the  revenge  of  of- 
fended gods"  became  the  belief  that  mental  diseases  were 
due  to  sin.  Such  views  held  until,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century,  in  France,  Pinel,  "whose  statue  fittingly 
stands  at  the  gateway  of  the  Salpetriere  in  Paris,  took 
away  the  chains  from  the  insane  .  .  and  formulated  for 
the  world  the  humane  and  scientific  conception  of  mod- 


"We  think,   one  of  the  Hearst   Papers    dated  the   fall   of   1912. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          381 

ern  times."  When  "Esquirol  and  Bayle  discovered  that 
certain  forms  of  insanity  ended  in  death,"  and  that  in 
such  cases  changes  were  found  to  have  taken  place  in 
the  brain, — especially  when  Esquirol  showed  that  gen- 
eral paralysis  of  the  insane,  called  "softening  of  the 
brain,"  was  "always  bound  up  with  chronic  inflammatory 
degeneration  of  the  cerebral  matter,"  the  foundation  was 
laid  for  the  dogma  still  generally  held,  that  "diseases 
of  mind  are  diseases  of  the  brain."  Gall's  discoveries, 
tracing  loss  of  the  power  of  speech  to  a  lesion  in  the  left 
lower  frontal  convolution  of  the  brain,  seemed  to  con- 
firm it.  Tumors  on  the  brain  were  found  to  be  the 
cause  of  extreme  idiocy  and  other  intense  mental  dis- 
orders. "Wernicke  localized  the  speech  center  in  the 
left  temporal  lobe,"  and  then  it  was  hoped  that  "every 
physical  activity  would  be  assigned  a  place  in  the  cortical 
gray  matter."  The  effort  was  made  to  trace  primary 
mental  changes  in  the  psychoses  back  to  parallel  changes 
in  the  brain.  Meynert,  of  Vienna,  sought  an  origin 
of  the  psychoses  in  the  alteration  of  blood-supply  in 
certain  region.  Wernicke  saw  an  explanation  in  morpho- 
logical changes.  The  result  of  these  efforts  is  that  every 
asylum  has  its  "anatomical  laboratory  where  cerebral 
sections  are  cut,  stained,  and  microscoped."  Now,  how- 
ever, the  pendulum  is  swinging  the  other  way — toward 
a  recongnition  of  the  importance  of  the  reational  and 
emotional  factors. 

So  much  for  the  chances,  of  a  sytem  of  reading 
"character"  at  sight.  Now  for  the  possibility 
of  "training"  traits  of  character — "will,"  "mem- 
ory," etc.  If  elementary  psychology  were  but 
taught  in  the  schools,  how  hard  it  would  be  for 
the  quacks  to  make  a  living!  But  were  too  busy 
with  Latin  and  higher  mathematics  to  have  time 


382          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

for  merely  vital  subjects  like  physiology  or  psy- 
chology. 

Watson  gives  a  chapter9  to  the  limits  of  train- 
ing in  animals.  But  we  shall  get  most  of  our 
material  from  Thorndikes  Educational  Psychol- 
ogy. 

Here  is  a  resume  of  Chapter  IV,  "The  Relationship 
between  Mental  Traits" 

Introduction.  Mental  traits,  and  the  means  of  con- 
trolling them,  may  be  best  known  through  their  rela- 
tionships. The  study  of  these  relationships  is  necessary 
for  the  proper  estimate  of  the  disciplinary  value  of  stu- 
dies, for  right  choice  of  studies,  accurate  grading,  and 
conclusive  tests  of  mental  growth  and  condition.  The 
ignorance  of  mental  relationships  is,  however,  enormous, 
because: 

Thesis:  Mental  relationships  like  mental  traits,  are 
variable. 

Example:  The  relation  of  39%  between  ability  in 
Latin  and  ability  in  mathematics,  means  an  average  not 
an  individual  relation. 

A.  Variability  in  mental  relationships  may  be  as  ac- 
curately measured  as  any  facts. 

I.  By  measuring  the  degree  of  resemblance,  the  ratio, 
between  the  stations   of  an  individual   in  two  different 
traits,  having  first  measured  the  degree  of  resemblance 
between  the  two  mental  traits  in  a  group  of  individuals, 
as  an  average. 

II.  By  using  the  coefficient  of  correlation,   a   "single 
figure  so  calculated   from   the   individual  records   as  to 
give  the  degree  of  relationship  between  the  two  traits 
which  will  best  account  for  all  the  separate  cases  in  the 
group."    Range  of  possible  values:    -(-100%  ...   0  ... 
— 100%.     E.  g.,  "A  coefficient  of  correlation  between  two 

•  Watson — Behavior,   p.    297.      Chapt.   IX. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS         383 

abilities  of  +100%  means  that  the  individual  who  is 
the  best  in  the  group  of  one  ability  will  be  the  best  in 
the  other." 

B.  Relationships  between  mental  acilities  or  functions 
may  be: 

I.  Necessary;   i.  e.,  "where  the  mind  is  so  organized 
that  the  condition  of  one  function  always  involves  such 
and  such  a  condition  of  the  other  function,"  * 

II.  Caused;  i.  e.,  due  to  the  action  of  some  cause,  such 
as  growth  or  training,  that  influences  both  functions  in 
similar  ways. 

*I.  (a).  Necessary  relationships  are  difficult  to  find, 
because: 

(1).  Correlation  between  remembering  numbers  and 
remembering  words  is  slight  and  variable. 

(-2).  Adding  figures  in  one  order  does  not  give  facil- 
ity in  adding  them  in  the  reverse  order. 

(3).  "Almost  any,  if  not  any,  one  thing  in  the  mind 
may  happen  in  partial  independence  of  almost  any,  If 
not  of  any,  other  thing";  e.  g.,  a  great  variety  of  moral 
and  intellectual  virutes  and  vices  may  accompany  ef- 
ficiency in  earning  a  living,  success  in  school  studies, 
professional  skill,  or  scientific  insight. 

C.  The  notion   that   any   special   mental    act   has   for 
its  main  component  some  general   faculty   or   function 
is  not  true,  because  facts  bear  out  the  comparative  inde- 
pendence of  mental  functions.    This  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that: 

I.  Attentiveness   to   one  series   of  experiences  is  not 
necessarily  accompanied   by  attentiveness   to  any   other 
series. 

II.  Correlations  in  memory   (.61),  association    (.30), 
and  perception  (.51)  tests  between  the  two  members  of 
pairs   of   practically  identical   traits,    show    the    above 
marked  and  significant  divergences. 

II.  Numerous  other  facts  confirm  this.  (See  Table  of 
Correlated  Coefficients,  below.) 


384          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

;  Conclusion.  Therefore,  "The  mind  must  be  regarded 
aot  as  a  functional  unit  nor  even  as  a  collection  of  a  few 
general  faculties  which  work  irrespective  of  particular 
material,  but  rather  as  a  multitude  of  functions  each  of 
which  is  related  closely  to  only  a  few  of  its  fellows,  to 
others  with  greater  and  greater  degrees  of  remoteness, 
and  to  many  to  so  slight  a  degree  as  eludes  measure- 
ment." (P.  29.)  This  necessitates: 

A.  The  readjustment  of  thinking  in  accordance  with 
the   "singularity   and    relative     independence     of    every 
mental  process,  the  thorough-going  specialisation  of  the 
mind"    because    this    independence     is    so     thoroughly 
borne  out  by  the  facts  of  the  structure  and  mode  of  ac- 
tion of  the  nervous  system. 

B.  The  readjustment  of  educational  methods,  and  es- 
pecially the  new  formulation  of  mental  tests. 

Table  of  Correlation  Coefficients.   (See  C,  III  above.) 

I.  Among  college  freshmen   the    correlation    of    effi- 
ciency in  various  kinds  of  mental  tests  nowhere  exceeded 
.07,  except  in  one  case  of  efficiency  in  memory  of  figures 
heard  with  that  of  figures  seen,  where  it  was  .39. 

The  correlation  of  efficiency  in  motor  quickness  with 
quickness  in  mental  tests  nowhere  exceeded  .09.  The 
correlation  of  efficiency  in  memory  with  quickness  in 
reaction  time  nowhere  exceeded  .17.  In  various  tests 
of  quickness,  the  highest  correlation  was  .21. 

Accuracy  tests  showed  in  the  main  no  correlation,  but 
in  one  case  a  correlation  of  .38. 

II.  Among  highest   grammar-school    pupils,   boys   and 
girls  together,  no  correlation  in  effeciency  tests  exceeded 
.36;   in  quickness  none  exceeded  .34;   in  accuracy,  none 
exceeded  .30. 

-  III.  With  adults,  the  correlation  between  deficiency 
in  sense  discrimination  and  mental  tests  was  0,  or  very 
slight;  between  delicacy  of  discrimination  of  length  and 
weight,  with  weight  and  pressure,  etc.,  was  at  highest, 
.30.  Efficiency  in  memory  tests  ran  from  .02  to  .75,  as 


385 

also  did  perception  tests.  In  quickness  in  mental  tests  it 
was  found  that  the  quickest  and  the  slowest  are  both 
more  accurate  than  those  of  mediocre  speed.  General 
efficiency  in  mental  tests  ranged  from  .07  to  .61. 

IV.  In  tests  of  children  from  10  to  15  years,  the  range 
in  memory  was  .18;  in  efficiency,  .52. 

The  Relationship  of  School  Abilities. 

The  mental  traits  involved  in  a  single  school  study 
are  always  complex,  and  vary  with  different  aspects  of 
the  study  and  different  methods  of  teaching.  Studies 
should  be  analysed  down  to  elements  that  were  in  each 
case  homogeneous,  and  the  relations  amongst  them  then 
found. 

As  studies  stand,  the  following  relations  are  shown 
by  teachers'  marks: 

Science  is  closer  to  Latin  than  to  mathematics. 

Science  is  closer  to  English  than  history  is. 

Algebra  and  geometry  are  as  distantly  related  as 
though  one  were  a  mathematical  and  the  other  a  non- 
mathematical  subject. 

English  and  geography  are  more  nearly  related  than 
either  is  to  drawing. 

The  most  striking  thing  is  the  small  amount  of  cor- 
relation among  the  subjects.  This  means  that  "the  most 
talented  scholar  in  one  field  will  be  less  than  half  as 
talented  in  any  other,"  and  "that  the  most  hopeless 
scholar  in  one  field  will  in  another  be  not  so  far  below 
mediocrity." 

The  folly  of  using  any  one  study  as  a  basis  for  grading 
and  promoting  is  apparent;  and  if  it  were  done,  Eng- 
lish and  not  arithmetic  would  be  the  better  choice. 

It  is  also  clear  that,  for  whatever  reason  it  may  be, 
there  is  a  "closer  correlation  of  abilities  in  boys  than  in 
girls  in  the  grammar  grades." 

The  relationships  among  the  abilities  involved  in  some 
of  the  simpler  processes  of  arithmetic  shows  a  very 
slight  correlation,  in  on  instance  more  than  .17,  which 


386          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

proves  that  each  process  is  really  a  separate  problem. 

We  shall  come  more  specifically  to  our  topic,  how- 
ever, with  a  resume  of  Thorndike's  Chapter  VIII,  "The 
Influence  of  Special  Forms  of  Training  upon  More  Gen- 
eral Abilities.'' 

Introduction.  The  problem  is,  How  far  does  the  train- 
ing of  any  mental  function  improve  other  mental  func- 
tions? That  there  is  some  influence  upon  other  mental 
traits  from  the  training  of  one,  is  clear,  but  it  is  also 
evident  that  this  influence  is  not  comparable  in  amount 
to  that  upon  the  direct  object  of  training. 

Thesis:  A  change  in  one  function  alters  any  other 
only  in  so  far  as  the  two  functions  have  as  factors  identi- 
cal elements.  E.  g.,  Improvement  in  addition  will  alter 
one's  ability  in  multiplication  because  addition  is  ab- 
solutely identical  with  a  part  of  multiplication. 

(Definition:  "By  identical  elements  are  meant  mental 
processes  which  have  the  same  cell  action  in  the  brain  as 
their  physical  correlate.") 

A.  The  view  of  the  large  influence  of  any  special 
form  of  discipline  upon  general  functions  of  the  mind 
is  not  true: 

I.  Although  supported  by  such  psychologists  and  edu- 
cators as: 

R.  N.  Roark:    "Methods  in  Education." 
C.  L.  Morgan:  "Psychology  for  Teachers." 
E.  H.   Babbitt,   A  Lodeman,   and   Calvin  Thomas   on 
"Methods  of  Teaching  the  Modern  Languages." 

J.  H.  Morris  and  R.  Wormell,  on  "Teaching  and  Or- 
ganization," and  such  college  presidents  as  Woodrow 
Wilson,  Thomas  J.  Conaty,  Nathaniel  Butler,  H.  M. 
McCracken,  and  Timothy  Dwight. 

II.  Because  a  study  of  "the  relationships  of  mental 
abilities   proved    that   there   was   every   reason    to    dis- 
believe in  the  existence  of  such  truly  general  abilities," 
as  memory,  attention,  etc.       For: 

(a).  There  is  a  static  independence  of  mental  func- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          387 

-lion,  which,  however,  does  not  imply  in  functional  inde- 
pendence; for  perfect  correlation  between  two  traits  does 
not  imply  the  influence  of  alteration  in  one  upon  the 
other,  »br  does  lack  of  correlation  prevent  the  improve- 
ment of  one  through  the  training  of  the  other. 

(b).  There  is  a  general  absence  of  necessary  rela- 
tionships. 

'B.  Experiments  do  not  prove  the  spread  of  ability 
from  the  one  function  trained  to  others. 

I.  Experiments  on  the  "extent  to  which  training  of 
one  organ  of  the  body  improves  the  bilaterally  sym- 
metrical organ — Conducted  by: 

(1).  Volkmann,  who  found  that  practice  of  the  left 
arm  in  discrimination  improved  the  right  arm  without 
any  practice  to  an  almost  equal  degree. 

(2).  Scripture,  Smith,  and  Brown,  who  found  that 
improvement  of  strength  of  grasp  in  one  arm  was  ac- 
companied by  80%  as  much  improvement  in  the  other 
arm. 

(3).  David,  who  found  that  practice  with  the  toe, 
hand,  and  arm  movements  upon  one  side  was  followed 
by  very  notable  improvement  upon  the  other. 

(4).  Woodworth,  who  found  that  training  in  ac- 
curacy in  hitting  a  dot  with  one  hand,  gave  an  almost 
parallel  degree  of  facility  in  the  other  untrained  hand. 
— -are  not  strictly  relevant  because: 

(a).  The  sensations  from  any  pair  of  bilaterally  sym- 
metrical organs  are  different  from  those  from  any  pair 
of  organs  taken  at  random,  and 

(b).  Cannot  be  considered  as  illustrating  such  in- 
ferences as  that  of  Stumpf,  "that  the  capacity  of  con- 
centrating attention  on  a  certain  point  in  question,  in 
whatever  field  it  is  acquired,  will  show  itself  efficacious 
in  all  others";  or  that  of  Scripture,  that  "the  develop- 
ment of  will  power  in  connection  with  any  activity  is 
accompanied  by  a  development  of  will  power  as  a 
whole,"  etc.;  because 


388          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

•-'.'•  ('!)••  They  imply  -  that  functions  are  related  as  are 
sensations  of  one  organ  with  identical  sensations  from 
the  bilaterally  symmetrical  organ,— which  is  false. 

(2)i  They  imply  that  the  amount  of  "attention"  or 
"will  power"  in  one  organ  is  equaled  in  the  case  of  an- 
other, which  it  is  not. 

(3).  They  make  no  effort  to  discover  whether  the 
amount  of  improvement  that  is  common  to  both  is  not 
due  entirely  to  identical  elements  of  a  concrete  sort, 
such  as  sensations,  or  contractions  of  the  muscles,  etc. 

II.  Direct  experiments  in  the  influence  of  training  in 
one  function  upon  the  condition  of  another. 

Experiments:  (1).  The  two  functions  chosen  were 
closely  similar,  and  usually  regarded  as  identical  by 
psychologists. 

(2).  The  subjects  were  gifted,  compared  with  people 
in  general. 

(a);  James'  experiments  in  memorizing  one  kind  of 
verse  before  and  after  training  in  memorizing  another 
kind,  showed  very  slight  improvement  in  facility,  and 
in  one  instance  a  loss. 

(b).  Gilbert  and  Fracker's  tests  in  quickness  in  mov- 
ing the  finger  at  certain  signals  showed  improved  re- 
sults after  training  except  in  one  case,  but  "the  low  cor- 
relation between  the  individual's  improvement  in  the 
special  act  trained  and  his  gain  in  other  acts  tested 
make  the  argument  from  the  amount  of  this  gain  in- 
secure"; and  the  functions  trained  obviously  contained 
many  elements  identical  with  those  of  the  functions 
tested.  - 

(c).  Thorndike  and  Woodworth's  experiments  in 
'training  in  ( 1 ) ,  estimating  areas,  lengths,  and  weights 
of  certain  shape  and  size,  showed  considei-able  improve- 
ment, but  not  over  52%  in  any  case. 

(2) .  Perceiving  words  containing  certain  letters,  mis- 
spelled words,  etc.,  showed  an  improvement  in  speed 
of  39%;  in  accuracy,  of  only  25%  as  much;  while  train- 


389 

ing  in  perceiving  English  verbs  reduced  the  time  nearly 
21%,  and  the  omissions  70%;  while  in  perceiving  other 
parts  of  speech,  time  was  reduced  only  3%,  hut  tb<^ 
omissions  increased  over  100%. 

(d).  Judd  found  that  though  there  was  "an  improve- 
ment in  the  direction  of  attention  and  in  the  character 
of  eye  movements"  in  one  observer,  in  another  a  fixed 
habit  was  caused  which  prevented  improvement  in  a 
similar  task. 

III.  The  results  show: 

(a).   In  influencing  factors: 

(1).  The  acquisition  of  ideas  of  method  and  general 
utility. 

(2).  Facility  in  certain  elements  that  appear  in 
many  other  complexes. 

(b).  In  improvement. 

(1).  That  "improvement  in  any  single  mental  func- 
tion need  not  improve,"  and  may  injure,  "the  ability  in 
functions  commonly  called  by  the  same  name." 

(2).  That  improvement  in  any  single  function  does 
not  imply  equal  improvement  in  any  other,  however 
similar. 

(3).  That  no  change  of  data,  however  slight,  is  with- 
out effect  on  the  function;  hence,  there  is  a  point  in  the 
divergence  of  data  where  the  loss  of  effect  of  training 
is  complete;  and  the  rapidity  of  the  loss  implies  that 
that  point  is  nearer  than  has  been  supposed. 

(4).  Hence,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  "the  spread  of 
practice  occurs  only  where  identical  elements  are  con- 
cerned in  the  influencing  and  the  influenced  function." 
This  is  borne  out  by  Blair's  experiments  with  type- 
writer keys  and  the  repetition  of  the  alphabet,  experi- 
ments in  which  the  influence  of  practice  in  the  forming 
of  certain  associative  habits  showed  that  "20-days" 
training  .  .  .  put  the  abilities  in  the  tested  series  as  far 
ahead  as  3  days  of  direct  training  would  have  done," — 


390          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

thus- making  clear  that  "influence  of  training  is  meas- 
ured within  a  very  narrow  field." 

C.  Conclusion.  The  facts  concerning  both  mental 
traits  and  the  actual  influence  of  training  of  one  func- 
tion upon  the  efficiency  of  others  prove  that  the  amount 
of  disciplinary  effect  of  environmental  agencies  is 
greatly  overestimated.  The  reasons  are: 

I.  The  influence  of  selection  is  not  sufficiently  taken 
into  account.     The  qualities   of  general   discrimination, 
observation,  etc.,  which  may  be  increased  by  the  study 
of  Latin  and  Science,  may  have  been  the  cause  of    the 
choice  of  those  studies  rather  than  the  effect. 

II.  Due   discount  in   results  has  not  been  given  to  the 
natural  efficiency  due  to  growth  in  maturity. 

III.  Those   who   estimate   the   acquirement   of   mental 
aptitudes  are  themselves  gifted,  and  so  mistake  the  re- 
sults of  discipline  alone  upon  the  average  mind. 


SECTION  2 

In  the  above  section  we've  indicated  what  are 
some  of  the  limitations  on  training.  It'll  now  be 
in  order  to  show  what  actually  can  be  accom- 
plished toward  increased  efficiency  thru  habit 
formation — or  at  least  what  are  the  underlying 
principles  upon  which  we  must  work.  This  in- 
volves first  of  all  a  discussion  of  nerve  physi- 
ology, and  then  of  "the  Unconscious." 

You  may  know  that  in  the  simplest  forms  of 
organic  reaction,  the  protoplasm  which  feels  the 
shock  is  the  same  as  that  which  acts  because  of  it. 
The  next  step  is,  that  a  more  sensitive  type  of 
protoplasm,  called  a  nerve,  specializes  to  convey 
the  stimulus  from  one  part  to  motor  protoplasm 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          391 

at  another  part,  as  e.  g.,  when  you  cause  a  frog's 
leg  to  contract  or  straighten  by  stimulating  the 
nerve  with  electricity.  Third,  there's  an  afferent 
nerve  to  bring  the  stimulus  into  a  center,  and  an 
efferent  nerve  to  convey  it  from  the  center  to  the 
acting  muscle.  These  nerves  grow  longer,  con- 
nect better,  and  so,  supposedly,  make  easier  the 
passage  of  a  nervous  current;  or  they  shrink 
apart,  and  make  it  more  difficult  for  such  a  cur- 
rent to  pass.  We  .presume  that  the  beneficial  or 
poisonous  compounds  which  (an  analysis  of  per- 
spiration shows)  are  given  off  respectively  in 
pleasurable  or  in  painful  states,  have  their  func- 
tion in  causing  the  growth  of  the  nerve-fibres  after 
actions  of  which  the  results  were  pleasurable, 
and  shrinkage  of  them  after  actions  of  which  the 
results  were  painful.  This,  in  some  measure 
would  explain  why  a  pleasure-bringing  simple  re- 
action is  repeated,  but  one  bringing  displeasure 
is  avoided. 

But  the  steps  of  increasing  nervous  organiza- 
tion continue.  The  fourth  of  them  is,  that  over 
the  nervous  center  already  spoken  of,  which  we'll 
say,  is  located  in  the  spinal  cord  (tho  another 
such  is  at  the  solar  plexus)  is  set  a  higher  center, 
in  the  cerebellum,  one  having  more  complex  func- 
tions. Thus,  a  frog  having  the  cord  severed  in 
the  middle  of  its  back  will  execute  kicking  move- 

T.  Moore  Lalla  Rookh  (Prologue  No.  2).  Altho  causing  electric 
disturbances,  this  current  itself  apparently  is  chemical  rather  than 
either  electrical  or  vibratory,  and  may  be  likened  to  a  spark  of  com- 
bustion passing  along  a  fuse,  which  fuse  then  recovers  its  former 
conditions.  (SeeMcKindrick  and  Snodgrass'  Physiology  of  the  senses.) 


392          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

ments  in  the  water,  but  can  co-ordinate '.  these 
movements  properly  for  swimming,  only  if  the 
cerebellum's  intact.  Dominating  the  centers  of  the 
cerebellum,  again,  are  centers  in  those  parts  of 
the  cerebrum  which  control  practically  all  the 
common  activities  of  life;  and  supreme  over  all 
is,  apparently,  the  fore-brain.  By  means  of  this 
hierarchy  of  centers  a  corresponding  hierarchy 
in  our  habits  is  made  possible.  E.  g.,  (1)  the 
foot  develops  into  a  confirmed  habit,  the  tendency 
it  had  from  birth,  instinctively  to  push  down- 
ward when  you  press  up  against  its  sole.  The 
muscles  of  foot,  leg  and  back,  form  reactions 
necessary  for  balancing  the  body.  (2)  a  system 
of  co-ordinating  these  reactions  into  a  single  move- 
ment of  the  whole,  is  evolved,  in  which  the  sensa- 
tions from  the  moving  muscles  themselves  stimu- 
late those  muscles  to  new  movements,  which  cause 
new  sensations,  etc.,  in  a  cycle  like  that  of  the 
valves  and  pistons  in  a  steam  engine.  Now  the 
rhythm  of  walking,  for  instance,  can  be  switched 
on  or  off  as  you  can  switch  on  or  off  an  electric 
fan ;  and  simultaneously  other  rhythms,  say  the 
muscular  combinations  necessary  to  whistling  a 
tune,  are  reduced  to  the  same  subserviency.  (3) 
The  automatisms  of  walking,  whistling,  and  what 
not,  all  may  be  turned  on  at  the  same  time,  and 
expected  to  look  out  for  themselves,  whilst  the 
higher  consciousness  directs  the  threading  of  our 
walk  thru  a  maze  of  city  streets  to  the  postoffice, 
say;  or  the  running  thru,  in  systematic  order,  of 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          393 

a  repertoire  of  different  whistled  tunes.  (4) 
Even  the  threading  one's  way  to  the  postoffice, 
and  the  elaborate -succession  of  musical  selections, 
and  who  knows  what  side  activities,  such  as  e.  g., 
flirting  with  the  young  persons  of  opposite  sex 
whom  one  passes,  all  may  become  so  purely  ma- 
chine-like, that  while  they  go  on,  our  chief  con- 
sciousness may  be  concerned  with  policies  of  state, 
the  result  of  the  ball  game,  or  what  not.  The 
function  of  habits  is,  to  disburden  us  of  details, 
so  that  we  may  pass  on  to  more  puzzling  urgen- 
cies. All  which  we  do  so  easily  now,  once  had  to 
be  made  laboriously  into  a  habit,  and  the  energy 
we  then  spend  in  the  right  direction,  gives  our 
career  momentum  now, — as  surely  as  that  which 
we  mis-spent  them,  now  drags  us  back  with  leaden 
inertia. 

"Our  acts  our  angels  are,  or  good,  or  ill, 
Our  fatal  shadows,  that  walk  by  us  still."10 

James  gives  three  valuable  rules  on  habit- 
formation.  The  first  is,  that  we  should  break 
with  the  old  ways  as  sharply  as  possible.  The 
second,  that  we  should  take  advantage  of  every 
chance  that  offers,  for  establishing  the  new  habit 
firmly  at  once.  Also,  we  never  should  allow  a 
beautiful  impulse  to  evaporate  without  effectively 
acting  upon  it.  Going  to  church  or  grand  opera, 
getting  yourself  ethically  all  wrot  up,  and  then 
simply  consuming  food  and  going  to  bed,  is  seri- 
ously morally  injurious.  Third,  we  should  suffer 

"Fletcher,  J..  Upon  an  Honest  Man's  Fortune. 


394          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

no  exception  to  occur  until  the  new  habit  is  thoro- 
ly  well  established. 

But  before  we  proceed  further  with  James,  it 
may  be  in  order  to  inform  you  as  to  the  modern 
idea  of  "the  unconscious."  The  concept  of  uncon- 
scious thinking  dates  back  to  Friederick  Herbart 
(1776-1841),  who  pointed  out  that  when  opposed 
concepts  encounter  one  another,  some  had  to  yield 
and  be  repressed  below  the  "threshold  of  con- 
sciousness," tho  (if  not  destroyed)  only  to  reap- 
pear as  efforts  to  present  themselves  again.  (A 
new  idea,  moreover,  had  always  to  pass  muster 
before  the  "apperception-mass"  of  preconceived 
prejudices.)  After  Herbart,  Schaupenhauer  con- 
tributed a  great  deal  to  this  line  of  thot. 

What  has  science  thus  far  ascertained  about 
that  hidden  thing  we've  named  "the  unconscious?" 
What  definitions  have  been  given  of  it?  Freud 
considers  the  unconscious  as  a  sort  of  garbage-can 
into  which  are  cast  all  those  desires  which  for 
social  or  religious  or  other  reasons  have  become 
unbearable  to  our  conscious  mind.  Lay  regards 
it  as  a  sort  of  a  dwelling  place  of  Titan  emotions, 
which  it  is  our  business  to  drive  back  where  they 
belong.  This  is,  of  course,  a  conception  hardly 
consistent  with  the  other  hypothesis  of  psycho- 
analysis. White  defines  it  as  the  part  of  the 
psyche  on  which  reality  plays,  and  strikes  the 
spark  of  the  conscious.  Jung  regards  it  as  the 
sum  of  all  processes  below  the  threshold  of  the 
conscious,  and  not  only  the  abiding  place  of  re- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          395 

jected  desires,  but  the  source  from  which  future 
conscious  states. 

Treasure  the  very  dust  of  Time.  Never  is  the 
disposal  of  one  single  second  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence. Often,  indeed,  it  may  be  spent  best  in  abso- 
lute idleness,  as  in  sleeping,  but  a  short  and  intense 
slumber  is  not  only  more  economical  of  time  than 
a  more  prolonged  yet  restless  one,  but  actually 
it  is  more  wholesome.  The  contrary  largely  is 
true  as  regards  eating,  since  to  eat  slowly  is  bene- 
ficial ;  but  even  here  time  may  be  saved  along  with 
health  by  partaking  of  but  small  quantities  of 
food,  and  few  dishes.  Haste  seldom  achieves 
values ;  but  quickness  is  quite  another  thing.  Most 
valuable  as  an  economiser  of  Time,  is  the  habit 
of  intelligent  patient  industry.  Never  desire  to 
kill  Time;  Time  is  a  good  servant. 

A  compelling  influence  which  we  can  enlist  on 
our  own  behalf,  is  the  powerful  force  of  auto- 
suggestion. We  must  read  the  books  that  are 
cheerful  and  inspiring.  We  must  "run  with" 
companions  who  are  overflowing  with  life  and 
good  spirits,  and  must  avoid  dining  in  those  cafes 
where  other  than  energetic  types  of  people  sur- 
round us ;  'tis  no  harm  (since  the  bodily  carriage 
has  an  effect  upon  the  mental  attitude)  to  offset 
our  ragged  attire  by  an  imperceptible  swagger; 
certainly  we  should  do  all  that  we  do,  "with  an 
air."  To  clap  our  acquaintances  upon  the  back, 
without  arousing  resentment  as  being  too  famil- 
iar, and  successfully  flirt  with  all  the  prettiest 


396          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

girls ;  these  are  the  tests  and  touchstones  of  what 
is  called  "manner,"  (distinguish  between  the 
singular  and  the  plural)  and  by  his  increasing 
skill  one  may  measure  the  egoist's  progress. 

Jung  devotes  the  tenth  chapter  of  his  Psychol- 
ogy of  the  Unconscious  to  its  importance  in  Psy- 
chopathology.  Herein  he  discusses  the  content  of 
the  unconscious  which  is  defined  as  sum  of  all 
psychical  processes  below  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness. The  answer  to  the  question:  How 
does  the  unconscious  behave  in  neurosis?  is 
found  in  its  effect  on  normal  consciousness,  as 
illustrated  by  the  example  of  a  certain  merchant. 
The  compensating  function  of  the  unconscious  is 
taken  up.  Symotomatic  acts  and  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's dream  are  discussed.  Intuitive  ideas,  and 
insane  manifestations  both  emanate  from  the  un- 
conscious. Eccentricities  pre-exist  a  breakdown. 
In  mental  disorder  unconscious  processes  break 
thru  into  consciousness  and  disturb  equilibrium. 
This  is  true  also  in  fanaticism.  Pathological 
compensations  are  afforded  by  the  peculiar  symp- 
toms in  cases  of  paranoia.  Unconscious  processes 
have  to  struggle  against  resistances  in  the  con- 
scious mind.  Distortion  of  memories  is  due  to  re- 
pression of  unpleasant  parts:  In  morbid  condi- 
tions the  function  of  the  unconscious  is  one  of 
compensation. 

The  method  of  arriving  at  an  understanding  of 
the  unconscious  is  highly  complex.  Technique 
has  been  evolved  which  makes  it  a  distinct  art 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          397 

if  not  a.  science  in  itself.  In  the.  .early  days  .Breuer 
and  Freud  used  to  hypnotise  their ;  patients., and 
then  extract  from  them  an  account  of  incidents 
remembered  in  the  hypnotic  state.  This  method 
succeeds  well  at  the  beginning,  but  has  a  number 
of  disadvantages.  In  the  first  place  not  all  per- 
sons are  readily  hypnotisable.  The  second  objec- 
tion is  still  more  serious,  hypnosis,  altho  at  first 
it  seems  to  bring  about  a  ready  confession  of  mem- 
ories hidden  in  the  unconscious  soon  results  in 
a  lack  of  transference  between  the  hypnotist  and 
his  subject  as  tho  the  subject  were  sensing  that 
he  was  yielding  up  the  inmost  secrets  of  his  soul 
without  being  able  to  control  his  outpouring,  be- 
came suspicious  that  they  might  be  employed  to 
his  disadvantage  and  thus  gradually  become  more 
and  more  reticent.  The  second  method  used  was 
therefore  to  simply  have  the  patient  recline  at 
ease  and  relate  various  ideas  as  they  occurred  to 
him. 

There  came  in  now  that  method  of  following 
up  clues  known  as  the  association  method  in  this 
whenever  the  patient  gave  hint  of  some  experi- 
ences around  which  a  great  group  of  emotional  dis- 
positions seem  to  cluster  or  from  which  trains  of 
association  seem  to  lead  away  in  all  kinds  of  di- 
rections a  special  note  was  made  of  such  experi- 
ence and  he  was  encouraged  to  tell  to  the  physi- 
cian everything  that  he  could  recall  in  connec- 
tion with  it  and  also  every  train  of  thot  or  fan- 


398          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tasy,  no  matter  how  absurd  that  came  into  his 
mind  at  the  time. 


SECTION  3 

"Never  be  idle." 

"Life  is  too  short  to  waste." 

"Push  on — keep  moving."11 

"We  are  not  sent  into  this  world  to  do  anything 
into  which  we  can  not  put  our  hearts.  We  have 
certain  work  to  do  for  our  bread  and  that  is  to  be 
done  strenuously;  other  work  to  do  for  our  de- 
light and  that  is  to  be  done  heartily;  neither  is 
to  be  done  by  halves  or  shifts  but  with  a  will ;  and 
what  is  not  worth  this  effort  is  not  to  be  done  a' 
all."* 

"The  line  between  failure  and  success  is  so  fine 
that  we  scarcely  know  when  we  pass  it — so  fine 
that  we  are  often  on  the  line  and  do  not  know  it. 
How  many  a  man  has  thrown  up  his  hands  at 
a  time  when  a  little  more  effort,  a  little  more 
patience,  would  have  achieved  success.  As  the 
tide  goes  clear  out,  so  it  comes  clear  in.  In  busi- 
ness, sometimes,  prospects  may  seem  darkest 
when  really  they  are  on  the  turn.  A  little  more 
persistence,  a  little  more  effort,  and  what  seemed 
hopeless  failure  may  turn  to  glorious  success. 
There  is  no  failure  except  in  no  longer  trying, 
There  is  no  defeat  except  from  within,  no  really 


"Morton,  Thomas — A  Cure  for  the  Heartache. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          399 

insurmountable  barrier  save  our  own  inherent 
weakness  of  purpose."** 

Purington's  article  in  the  Independant,  from 
which  we  have  quoted  briefly  above,  continues  to 
the  effect  that  a  "veteran  employee"  commented 
upon  the  executive  head  "  'the  chief  won  his  place 
by  knowing  more  about  the  company's  business 
than  any  other  man  here;  and  he  keeps  it,  I 
think,  by  aiways  knowing  just  what  to  do  in  a 
crisis.  Let  me  explain.  I  was  here  thirty  years 
ago,  when  the  Chief  came — hardly  more  than  a 
boy — and  took  a  job  at  $10  a  week.  From  the 
very  first  he  had  to  know  the  why  and  how  of 
everything.  He  borrowed  technical  books  from 
libraries ;  talked  with  officials  whenever  he  could 
make  a  chance;  found  an  experienced  man  in  his 
line  too  old  for  active  work  and  took  business 
lessons  from  the  old  fellow;  did  all  sorts  of  un- 
heard-of things,  to  master  the  science  of  his  trade. 

"  'It  wasn't  long  before  the  head  of  the  depart- 
ment came  to  consult  this  boy  whenever  a  hard 
problem  was  being  considered.  Then  one  day  the 
head  of  the  department  resigned.  Before  another 
manager  could  be  found,  a  crisis  developed  in  that 
branch  of  the  business,  and  the  whole  reputation 
of  the  company  was  involved.  The  high  officials 
were  in  a  panic.  What  did  that  boy  do  but  walk 
into  the  directors'  meeting  and  tell  the  owners 
of  the  business  how  to  hande  the  situation!  Of 


•Ruskln. 
••Marden. 


400          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

course  they  made  him  head  of  the  department. 

"  'He  held  the  position  a  couple  of  years,  made 
a  lot  of  improvements,  earned  a  large  salary  in- 
crease, and  saved  a  few  thousand  dollars.  Then 
he  did  a  most  unusual  thing.  He  asked  for  an- 
other job  in  a  more  difficult  branch  of  the  busi- 
ness— a  job  that  meant  lower,  harder  work,  and 
the  pay  scarcely  a  fourth  of  what  he  was  getting. 
Some  of  the  directors  called  him  a  fool — tho  now 
they  realize  he  was  a  genius ;  but  they  transferred 
him  as  requested.  Within  a  year  he  had  invented 
a  scheme  for  cutting  costs  that  he  sold  to  the  com- 
pany for  several  thousand  dollars  and  a  good  roy- 
alty. Soon  he  had  a  share  in  the  business,  and 
a  comprehensive  idea  of  the  present,  past  and 
future  of  each  department.  He  was  always  break- 
ing out  in  some  new  place,  with  some  new  plan  for 
enlarging  the  business  or  reducing  the  expense.' ' 

Mr.  Purington's  advice  is: 

"Know  your  job.  Learn  exactly  what  you  are 
paid  to  do — and  not  to  do.  Organize  each  class 
of  work  on  a  time  schedule.  Find  the  standard 
output,  and  the  maximum,  for  a  week,  a  day,  an 
hour;  make  your  output  measure  up  always  be- 
tween the  standard  and  the  maximum.  Write 
out  a  list  of  all  the  mistakes  apt  to  occur  in  your 
line  of  work;  then  take  special,  itemized  precau- 
tion to  prevent  each.  Analyze  the  merits  and  de- 
merits of  every  tool,  machine,  material,  supply; 
compare  with  different  brands  of  manufacture, 
and  with  scientific  standards  of  performance;  re- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          401 

jeet  faulty  equipment,  demand  the  best  utensils 
far  your  work,  Make- a  list  of  the  new  books  in 
your  profession,  devote  an  evening  or  two  a  week 
to  study  an  application  of  improved  methods. 
Join  a  national  trade  association  or  professional 
society,  and  make  friends  with  the  leaders  in  your 
line.  Locate  a  man  who  has  done  bigger,  better 
things  than  you  have;  study  him,  the  principles, 
aims  and  methods  that  made  him ;  detect  and  cor- 
rect your  especial  habits  of  failure.  .  .  . 

"There  are  in  America  today  a  number  of  men 
with  salaries  of  $50,000  or  more,  who  held  jobs 
not  so  long  ago  at  $15  a  week.  How  did  they  gain 
such  promotion  ?  For  every  dollar  in  money  each 
man  took  from  his  job  he  took  fifty  or  a  hundred 
dollars'  worth  of  knowledge.  Thus  each  man  ulti- 
mately fixed  his  own  salary.  The  way  to  make  an 
occupation  valuable  is  to  look  on  it  as  an  educa- 
tion." 

But  it's  not  so  much  the  experiences  in  them- 
selves thru  which  a  man  meanders  that  are  valu- 
able, as  it  is  his  retention  of  the  gist  of  those  ex- 
periences. In  passing  thru  a  book,  and  equally 
in  passing  thru  life,  we  should  under-line  the  key- 
sentences,  to  refer  to  them  again. 

If  we  were  to  ask,  here,  just  what  occurs  within 
us  when  we  recognize  an  experience  to  be  the  same 
with  one  which  we've  had  previously,  we  should 
find  ourselves  in  a  discussion  of  what  James  calls 
one  of  the  foundation  pillars  of  mental  life.  It 
may  be  that  each  of  us  has  his  own  peculiar  form 


402          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

of  recognition,  as  e.  g.,  a  sensation  from  some 
part  of  the  body.  In  recognition  in  its  lowest 
form  we  simply  know  that  our  final  attitude  is 
the  same.  A  low  form  would  be  the  recognition 
of  our  own  room  when  we  go  to  it.  The  case  of 
our  reaction  is  the  test;  ease  when  things  go 
smoothly  as  contrasted  with  the  shock  of  having 
to  overcome  something  unfamiliar.  We  give  the 
name  Mediate  Recognition  to  that  type  in  which 
perceiving  an  object  starts  a  train  of  thot  and 
step  by  step  brings  back  the  earlier  situation  un- 
til in  a  sudden  flash  we  have  the  whole  clearly.* 
Thus  in  either  case  the  process  of  recognizing  is 
in  the  end  a  coming  back  to  an  "already-re- 
hearsed" motor  attitude  to  the  situation.  (You'll 
understand  this  better  when  you've  read  the  les- 
son on  Habit.  Pass  on  now.) 

It  usually  is  said  that  memories  of  events  are 
blotted  out  by  mere  passage  of  time.  Probably 
this  is  inaccurate ;  for  that  the  unconscious  never 
loses  any  impression,  however  trivial  is  indicated 
by  the  revival  of  a  forgotten  experience  in  hypno- 
sis, etc. 

Jung  at  least  is  of  opinion  that  forgetting  con- 
sists in  two  processes.  One  is  condensation;  by 
a  boiling-down  process  the  essentials  of  situations 
are  made  relatively  more  prominent. 

•Theories  in  regard  to  recognition  are  of  three  types.  Theorists 
of  the  first  type  are  concerned  with  a  recognition  of  function.  The- 
orists of  the  second  type  include  Tichner,  Wundt,  and  the  great  ma- 
jority (tho  the  behaviorists  have  written  little)  ;  they  hold  that  recog- 
nition may  be  superimposed  upon  a  situation.  A  third  type  (vide  Hob- 
bes  and  Mary  Calkins)  hold  that  recognition  is  a  not-further-analysa- 
ble  element  of.  consciousness. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          403 

Recognitions  can  be  divided  into  (1)  the  affec- 
tive tones  and  (2)  the  organic  sensations  con- 
nected with  them.  Of  these  the  former  are  more 
important. 

Kostyleff  (p.  35)  by  examining  hallucinations, 
shows  that  "it  is  not  the  process  of  contact,  but 
the  process  of  measure  and  of  identification, 
which  makes  the  cognizance  of  things,  and  lives 
again  thereafter  in  thot."  And  their  million 
trivialities  become  subordinated.  Such  boiling 
down,  indeed,  is  what  distinguishes  the  man  of 
discernment  from  the  bore;  a  child  or  an  imbe- 
cile may  have  good  memory  of  photographic  type. 
In  time  the  essential  points  even  of  many  situa- 
tions blend  into  a  general  impression.  A  more 
awkward  cause  of  forgetting  is  the  Distortion  of 
memories  due  to  the  fact  that  the  conscious  part 
of  our  mind  squeezes  out  of  itself,  that  is,  re- 
presses into  the  unconscious  part,  all  memories 
in  the  degree  that  they  are  knit  up  with  emotional 
elements  repugnant  to  our  personality.  We  shall 
discuss  this  at  length  in  a  later  lesson.  We're 
concerned  at  present  more  with  the  discovery  of 
a  corrective. 

Right  now  let  me  warn  you  against  the  so- 
called  courses  in  "memory  training"  which  are 
so  much  advertised  in  our  magazines.  Them  also, 
the  fallacies  on  which  they're  based  and  the  par- 
tial results  they  sometimes  seem  to  achieve,  we 
shall  have  to  consider  in  a  lesson  devoted  to  the 
subject  of  self -discipline. 


404          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

•  -'--But;  here,  at  the  beginning  of  our -lessonsr some 
hints  -on  how  to  study  will  be  most  in  place.  Sev- 
eral authors  have  written  instructively  on  this 
topic.  One  of  the  best  books  is  De  Garmo's  "How 
to  Study,  and  Teaching  How  to  Study." 

MeKeever  in  "Psychology  and  Higher  Life" 
concentrates  much  thot  into  the  following  epitome 
of  "How  to  Study"  (p.  174). 

"1.  Have  a  Program.  The  student  who  fol- 
lows the  same  program  of  study  and  work  every 
day  thereby  calls  to  his  assistance  a  powerful 
agency,  viz.,  habit.  It  is  this  way:  For  instance, 
if  you  study  algebra  every  day  from  2  to  3  P.  M., 
you  will  soon  find  the  mind  better  prepared  to 
master  algebra  at  that  hour  than  at  any  other. 
Try  it ! 

"2.  Have  a  Method.  Every  paragraph  you 
read  has,  or  ought  to  have,  a  central  or  specific 
idea.  Find  this  point  and  note  it  carefully.  Be- 
fore beginning  the  day's  duties,  have  in  mind  an 
ideal  standard  of  excellence,  and  then  strive  to 
reach  it.  In  this  way  one  accumulates  mental 
power,  generates  his  own  enthusiasm,  and  con- 
tributes directly  to  the  building  of  his  own 
character." 

(In  memorizing,  read  each  time  entirely  thru 
the  piece  to  be  committed  without  hesitation.  At 
all  other  times  give  the  newly  acquired  fact  a 
logical  place  within  your  whole  system  of  ideas; 
relate  it  by  logical  association  to  your  other 
knowledge.  For  this  reason  "cramming"  a  lot 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          405 

of  information  just  before  an  examination  is  a 
poor  way  to  retain  knowledge,  because  it  doesn't 
give  "each  new  fact  acquired  time  to  take  its  logi- 
cal place  among  the  facts  already  known.") 

"3.  Attention.  Positively  refuse  to  permit 
your  attention  to  be  drawn  away  from  the  task  it 
is  engaged  upon.  Herein  lies  the  secret  of  power, 
and  of  much  so-called  genius.  If  the  mind  wan- 
ders, bring  it  back  to  the  point  and  hold  it  there 
persistently.  See  that  your  efforts  in  this  respect 
are  not  hindered  by  sluggishness  resulting  from 
insufficient  sleep  or  improper  ventilation." 

The  importance  is  also  rightly  dwelt  upon  in- 
this  connection  of  Interest. 

Examples  are  given  of  a  young  woman  with  re- 
markable memory  for  names  and  faces  who 
"would  stand  in  the  hall  as  the  students  filed  by 
and  have  some  friend  tell  her  as  many  names  as 
possible.  Then,  she  would  be  seen  later  operat- 
ing at  another  place  in  one  of  the  buildings  with 
a  different  "helper."  She  threw  her  whole  soul 
into  the  task,  and  for  that  reason  success  was 
easily  attained." 

Mr.  Keever  himself,  "early  in  life  formed  the 
habit  of  trying  to  solve  all  ordinary  arithmetical 
problems  mentally.  The  favorite  time  and  place 
for  this  work  was  at  early  morning  before  get- 
ting out  of  bed.  His  memory  for  long  strings  of 
figures  is  still  very  active.  But  another  early 
habit  of  paying  no  attention  to  the  names  of  per- 
sons with  whom  he  became  acquainted  has  always 


406          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

been  a  source  of  annoyance  and  embarrassment 
to  him."  To  make  the  subject  understandable,  to 
take  it  out  of  the  realm  of  abstract  theory,  and 
to  give  "memory  .  .  .  another  ally  in  emo- 
tional interest"  laboratory  methods  and  concrete 
embodiments  of  the  lesson  are  vital;  "the  hands 
and  feet  and  muscles  of  the  body  are  put  thru  the 
process  of  doing  the  work  so  often  that  they  do 
the  remembering."  This  is  one  reason  we  assign 
observations  for  you  yourself  to  work  out  in  con- 
nection with  these  lessons.) 

"4.  Test  your  Strength.  One  of  the  best  tests 
•of  mind  concentration  comes  during  an  effort  to 
study  in  the  library.  About  half  of  those  who 
pretend  to  study  there  waste  their  time  in  the 
childish  habit  of  gazing  at  those  who  are  moving 
about  the  room.  If  you  can't  possibly  resist  the 
temptation  to  stare  at  others,  close  the  book  and 
feast  your  eyes  for  a  few  minutes,  then  study  dili- 
gently for  a  while;  but  don't  try  to  do  both  at 
once." 

(This  advice  is  prompted  by  some  observations 
made  under  Mr.  Keever's  direction  upon  the 
study-habits  of  students  in  the  library  of  Kansas 
State  Agricultural  College,  and  which  yielded  the 
table  on  the  following  page: 


Subject 

PHI 

Total 
Length  of 

LOSOPH 

Total 
Time 

Y  OF  HELPFULNESS          407 

Total    Efforts  to  Study       Interruptions 
Time 

Number       Test 
and  Sex  Min.   Sec. 

Studied 
Min.  Sec, 

Lost     No.     Av. 
Min.   Sec. 

Length    No.  Av.  Length 
Min.   Sec.             Min.  Sec. 

1. 

M 

31 

52 

25 

65 

5 

67 

46 

0 

34 

46 

0 

8 

2. 

M 

31 

15 

21 

10 

7 

5 

18 

1 

10 

18 

0 

23 

3. 

F 

45 

0 

30 

0 

15 

0 

8 

3 

45 

8 

1 

52 

4. 

M 

33 

0 

18 

30 

14 

30 

7 

2 

40 

6 

1 

25 

5. 

M. 

18 

59 

12 

15 

6 

44 

11 

1 

5 

11 

0 

37 

6. 

M 

28 

41 

21 

36 

7 

5 

18 

1 

12 

17 

0 

23 

7. 

M 

22 

5 

19 

40 

2 

25 

6 

3 

16 

6 

0 

25 

8. 

F 

23 

49 

20 

42 

3 

7 

26 

0 

48 

25 

0 

8 

9. 

M 

10 

15 

8 

45 

1 

30 

8 

1 

6 

8 

0 

13 

10. 

M 

23 

45 

17 

45 

6 

0 

12 

1 

29 

11 

0 

33 

11. 

M 

34 

51 

31 

50 

3 

1 

16 

1 

59 

16 

0 

12 

12. 

M 

22 

4 

15 

30 

6 

34 

12 

1 

19 

11 

0 

36 

"The  table  is  self-explanatory.  It  shows,  for 
example,  that  during  a  period  of  about  thirty-two 
minutes  subject  number  one  looked  up  from  his 
book  forty-five  times  and  made  forty-six  separate 
efforts  to  get  his  mind  on  the  lesson,  the  average 
length  of  time  of  the  efforts  being  thirty-four 
seconds.  In  the  majority  of  instances  the  sub- 
ject looked  up  from  the  page  in  order  to  see  who 
was  passing.") 

"5.  Be  Orderly  and  Systematic.  Good  order 
and  system  about  the  study-room  are  aids  to 
scholarly  work,  while  disorderliness  and  untidi- 
ness are  indicative  of  incoherent  thinking.  More- 
over, these  bad  qualities,  if  allowed  to  continue, 
will  become  a  menace  to  your  own  success  later  in 
life  and  a  great  annoyance  to  someone  who  will 
have  to  live  with  you.  Motto :  A  place  for  every- 
thing and  everything  in  its  place." 

(Happy  the  child  who,  making  extravagant 
statements,  "had  the  bare  reality  pointed  out  to 
him."  Moreover,  "clear  thinking  and  systematic 
work  are  twin  brothers.  .  .  .  Let  one  in  all 


408          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

that  he  undertakes  .  .  .  devise  a  method  that 
will  involve  the  least  possible  waste  of  time  and 
energy  and  yet  prove  effective  .  .  .let  him 
have  a  well  devised  plan  for  the  performance  of 
every  task  that  is  before  him,  and  his  subsequent 
development  into  a  logical,  systematic  thinker  is 
practically  assured.  ...  If  the  student  can,  at 
some  time  in  the  course,  take  up  the  formal  study 
of  logic,  he  will  be  enabled  to  accomplish  much 
toward  systematizing  his  thinking."  Elsewhere 
he  emphasizes  "the  masterly  method"  of  study 
by  making  notes  of  the  gist  of  every  argument 
and  the  "special  thesis  of  every  chapter.") 

"6.  Be  Punctual.  Tardiness  and  irregularity 
in  attendance  to  duty  are  two  bad  habits  that  may 
easily  be  broken  if  the  matter  is  undertaken  in 
time;  but,  if  permitted  to  go  on  unchecked,  they 
are  sure  to  bring  about  loss  of  interest,  and  dis- 
couragement. To  meet  all  of  one's  appointments 
promptly  is  an  evidence  of  stability  of  character, 
and  a  good  indication  of  worthy  attainment. 

"8.     Be  Cordial.    .    .    . 

"9.  Cultivate  Pure-Mindedness."  (In  a  later 
chapter  we  can  better  discuss  these.) 

"10.  .  .  .  You  can  become  a  member  of  the 
great  class  of  faithful,  diligent  workers,  and  they 
are  the  people  who  are  moving  the  world  today. 
Nearly  all  the  students  who  fail  in  their  classes 
do  so  on  account  of  lack  of  diligence;  very  few 
from  lack  of  ability.  If  you  would  master  a  sub- 
ject easily,  pay  special  attention  to  its  funda- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          409 

mental,  principles  given  at  the  beginning  of  the 
term." 

So  much  then,  for  the  method  of  study.  As 
to  that  related  question,  of  how  much  to  study, 
we'll  make  here  only  this  general  remark ;  that  we 
should  read  books  not  as  substitutes  for  life  and 
experience,  but  as  stimulants  of  our  own  observa- 
tive  and  feeling  powers.  Herein  lies  the  immense 
gulf  between  books.  The  popular  story  is  often 
excused  on  the  ground  that  it  teaches  us  about 
people.  A  novel  of  the  quality  of  Vanity  Fair 
undoubtedly  does  this.  But  we  can  afford  to  omit 
nearly  all  the  trash  which  passes  current  as 
"literature"  or  "philosophy"  or  popularized  and 
diluted  "psychology"  because  at  best  it  is  life  thru 
other  men's  eyes — second  hand.  Better  save  our 
reading  hours  for  more  technical  material,  for 
classics  whose  excellence  has  stood  the  test  of 
time,  a  few  standard  scienca-texts,  and  the  works 
of  Freud,  Adler,  Jung,  Jones,  Bril,  etc.  Their 
conclusions  we  can  accept  or  discard,  but  the 
classics  will  at  least  cultivate  our  judgment  of 
what  is  well  presented,  and  the  others  will  help 
us  avoid  pitfalls  and  equip  us  with  more  powerful 
methods  of  observing  life. 

You  see,  it  is  after  all  the  way  in  which  we  do 
things,  that  counts.  The  Ancients  had  innumer- 
able theories  about  almost  everything  under  the 
sun,  and  wrangled  over  them  ad  nauseam,  without 
establishing  any  of  them  above  others  as  more 
than  a  clever  guess — because  the  method  of  their 
attempted  proofs  was  weak. 


410          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Now  for  that  much  quoted  classical  chapter 
by  James  on  Habit: 

James  quotes  from  Huxley,  "a  story,  which 
is  credible  enough,  tho  it  may  not  be  true,  of  a 
practical  joker,  who  seeing  a  discharged  veteran 
carrying  home  his  dinner,  suddenly  called  out, 
'Attention!'  whereupon  the  man  instantly  brot 
his  hands  down,  and  lost  his  mutton  and  potatoes 
in  the  gutter.  The  drill  had  been  thorough,  and  its 
effects  had  become  embodied  in  the  man's  nervous 
structure,"13  and  he  continues.  "If  the  period 
between  twenty  and  thirty  is  the  critical  one  in 
the  formation  of  intellectual  and  professional  hab- 
its, the  period  below  twenty  is  more  important 
still  for  the  firing  of  personal  habits,  properly  so- 
called,  such  as  vocalization  and  pronunciation, 
gesture,  motion,  and  address.  Hardly  ever  is  a 
language  learned  after  twenty  spoken  without  a 
foreign  accent;  hardly  ever  can  a  youth  trans- 
ferred to  the  society  of  his  betters  unlearn  the 
nasality  and  other  vices  of  speech  bred  in  him  by 
the  associations  of  his  growing  years.  Hardly 
ever,  indeed,  no  matter  how  much  money  there  be 
in  his  pocket,  can  he  even  learn  to  dress  like  a 
gentleman-born.  The  merchants  offer  their  wares 
as  eagerly  to  him  as  to  the  veriest  'swell,'  but  he 
simply  cannot  buy  the  right  things.  An  invisible 
law,  as  strong  as  gravitation,  keeps  him  within 
his  orbit,  arrayed  this  year  as  he  was  the  last; 
and  how  his  better-bred  acquaintances  contrive 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          411 

to  get  the  things  they  wear  will  be  for  him  a 
mystery  till  his  dying  day. 

"The  great  thing,  then,  in  all  education,  is  to 
make  our  nervous  system  our  ally  instead  of  our 
enemy.  It  is  to  fund  and  capitalize  our  acquisi- 
tions, and  live  at  ease  upon  the  interest  of  the 
fund.  For  this  we  must  make  automatic  and 
habitual,  as  early  as  possible,  as  many  useful  ac- 
tions as  we  can,  and  guard  against  the  growing 
into  ways  that  are  likely  to  be  disadvantageous 
to  us,  as  we  should  guard  against  the  plague. 
The  more  of  the  details  of  our  daily  life  we  can 
hand  over  to  the  effortless  custody  of  automatism, 
the  more  our  higher  powers  of  mind  will  be  set 
free  for  their  own  proper  work.  There  is  no 
more  miserable  human  being  than  one  in  whom 
nothing  is  habitual  but  indecision,  and  for  whom 
the  lighting  of  every  cigar,  the  drinking  of  every 
cup,  the  time  of  rising  and  going  to  bed  every 
day,  and  the  beginning  of  every  bit  of  work,  are 
subjects  of  express  volitional  deliberation.  Full 
half  the  time  of  such  a  man  goes  to  the  deciding, 
or  regretting,  of  matters  which  ought  to  be  so  in- 
grained in  him  as  practically  not  to  exist  for  his 
consciousness  at  all.  If  there  be  such  daily  duties 
not  yet  ingrained  in  any  one  of  my  readers,  let 
him  begin  this  very  hour  to  set  the  matter  right. 

"In  Professor  Bain's  chapter  on  "The  Morai 
Habits'  there  are  some  admirable  practical  re- 
marks laid  down.  Two  great  maxims  emerge 
from  his  treatment.  The  first  is  that  in  the 


412          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

acquisition  of  a  new  habit,  or  the  leaving  off  of  an 
old  one,  we  must  take  care  to  launch  ourselves 
with  as  strong  and  decided  an  initiative  as  possi- 
ble. Accumulate  all  the  possible  circumstances 
which  shall  reinforce  the  right  motives ;  put  your- 
self assiduously  in  conditions  that  encourage  the 
new  way;  make  engagements  incompatible  with 
the  old ;  take  a  public  pledge,  if  the  case  allows ; 
in  short,  envelop  your  resolution  with  every  aid 
you  know.  This  will  give  your  new  beginning 
such  a  momentum  that  the  temptation  to  break 
down  will  not  occur  as  soon  as  it  otherwise  might ; 
and  every  day  during  which  a  breakdown  is  post- 
poned adds  to  the  chances  of  its  not  occurring  at 
all. 

"The  second  maxim  is:  Never  suffer  an  ex- 
ception to  occur  till  the  new  habit  is  securely  root- 
ed in  your  life.  Each  lapse  is  like  the  letting 
fall  of  a  ball  of  string  which  one  is  carefully  wind- 
ing up;  a  single  slip  undoes  more  than  a  great 
many  turns  will  wind  again.  Continuity  of  train- 
ing is  the  great  means  of  making  the  nervous 
system  act  infallibly  right.  As  Professor  Bain 
says: 

"  The  peculiarity  of  the  moral  habits,  contra- 
distinguishing them  from  the  intellectual  acqui- 
sitions, is  the  presence  of  two  hostile  powers,  one 
to  be  gradually  raised  into  the  ascendant  over  the 
other.  It  is  necessary,  above  all  things,  in  such  a 
situation,  never  to  lose  a  battle.  Every  gain  on 
the  wrong  side  undoes  the  effect  of  many  con- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          4i3 

quests  on  the  right.  The  essential  precaution, 
therefore,  is  so  to  regulate  the  two  opposing 
powers  that  the  one  may  have  a  series  of  unin- 
terrupted  successes,  until  repetition  has  fortified 
it  to  such  a  degree  as  to  enable  it  to  cope  with 
the  opposition,  under  any  circumstances.  This  is 
the  theoretically  best  career  of  mental  progress. 
"The  need  of  securing  success  at  the  outset  is 
imperative.  Failure  at  first  is  apt  to  dampen  the 
energy  of  all  future  attempts,  whereas  past  ex- 
perience of  success  nerves  one  to  future  vigor. 
Goethe  says  to  a  man  who  consulted  him  about  an 
enterprise  but  mistrusted  his  own  powers:  'Ach! 
you  need  only  blow  on  your  hands !'  And  the  re- 
mark illustrates  the  effect  on  Goethe's  spirits  of 
his  own  habitually  successful  career.  Professor 
Baumann,  from  whom  I  borrow  the  anecdote,1 
says  that  the  collapse  of  barbarian  nations  when 
Europeans  come  among  them  is  due  to  their  de- 
spair of  ever  succeeding  as  the  newcomers  do 
in  the  larger  tasks  of  life.  Old  ways  are  broken 
and  new  ones  not  formed.  The  question  of  'taper- 
ing-oftY  in  abandoning  such  habits  as  drink  and 
opium-indulgence,  comes  in  here,  and  is  a  ques- 
tion about  which  experts  differ  within  certain 
limits,  and  in  regard  to  what  may  be  best  for 
an  individual  case.  In  the  main,  however,  all  ex- 
pert opinion  would  agree  that  abrupt  acquisition 
of  the  new  habit  is  the  best  way,  if  there  be  a 


'See  the  admirable  passage  about  success  at  the  outset,  in  hb  Hand- 
buch    der  Moral    (1878)    pp.   38-43. 


414          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

real  possibility  of  carrying  it  out.  We  must  be 
careful  not  to  give  the  will  so  stiff  a  task  as  to 
insure  its  defeat  at  the  very  outset ;  but,  provided 
one  can  stand  it,  a  sharp  period  of  suffering,  and 
then  a  free  time,  is  the  best  thing  to  aim  at, 
whether  in  giving  up  a  habit  like  that  of  opium, 
or  in  simply  changing  one's  hours  of  rising  or  of 
work.  It  is  surprising  how  soon  a  desire  will  die 
of  inanition  if  it  be  never  fed. 

"  'One  must  first  learn,  unmoved,  looking  nei- 
ther to  the  right  nor  left,  to  walk  firmly  on  the 
straight  and  narrow  path,  before  one  can  begin  "to 
make  one's  .self  over  again."  He  who  every  day 
makes  a  fresh  resolve  is  like  one  who,  arriving  at 
the  edge  of  the  ditch  he  is  to  leap,  forever  stops 
and  returns  for  a  fresh  run.  Without  unbroken 
advance  there  is  no  such  thing  as  accumulation  of 
the  ethical  forces  possible,  and  to  make  this  pos- 
sible, and  to  exercise  us  and  habituate  us  in  it. 
is  the  sovereign  blessing  of  regular  work.'2 

"A  third  maxim  may  be  added  to  the  preceding 
pair;  Seize  the  very  first  possible  opportunity  to 
a6t  on  every  resolution  you  make,  and  on  every 
emotional  prompting  you  may  experience  in  the 
direction  of  the  habits  you  aspire  to  gain.  It  is 
not  in  the  moment  of  their  forming,  but  in  the 
moment  of  their  producing  motor  effects,  that 
resolves  and  aspirations  communicate  the  new 
'set'  to  the  brain.  As  the  author  last  quoted  re- 
marks : 


;J.   Bahnsen  :     Beitrapre  u  CharakteroloRie.      (1867),  vol.   1,  p.  209. 


415 

"  'The  actual  presence  of  the  practical  opportu- 
nity alone  furnishes  the  fulcrum  upon  which  the 
lever  can  rest,  by  means  of  which  the  moral  will 
may  multiply  its  strength,  and  raise  itself  aloft. 
He  who  has  no  solid  ground  to  press  against  will 
never  get  beyond  the  stage  of  empty  gesture- 
making.' 

"No  matter  how  full  a  reservoir  of  maxims  one 
may  possess  and  no  matter  how  good  one's  sen- 
timents may  be,  if  one  have  not  taken  advantage 
of  every  concrete  opportunity  to  act  one's  char- 
acter may  remain  entirely  unaffected  for  the  bet- 
ter. With  mere  good  intentions,  hell  is  proverb- 
ially paved.  And  this  is  an  obvious  consequence 
of  the  principles  we  have  laid  down.  A  'charac- 
ter,' as  J.  S.  Mill  says,  'is  a  completely  fashioned 
will;'  and  a  will,  in  the  sense  in  which  he  means 
it,  is  an  aggregate  of  tendencies  to  act  in  a  firm 
and  prompt  and  definite  way  upon  all  the  principal 
emergencies  of  life.  A  tendency  to  act  only  be- 
comes effectively  ingrained  in  us  in  proportion 
to  the  uninterrupted  frequency  with  which  the 
actions  actually  occur,  and  the  brain  'grows'  to 
their  use.  Every  time  a  resolve  or  a  fine  glow  of 
feeling  evaporates  without  bearing  practical  fruit 
is  worse  than  a  chance  lost ;  it  works  so  as  posi- 
tively to  hinder  future  resolutions  and  emotions 
from  taking  the  normal  path  of  discharge.  There 
is  no  more  contemptible  type  of  human  charac- 
ter than  that  of  the  nerveless  sentimentalist  and 
dreamer,  who  spends  his  life  in  a  weltering  sea 


416          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

of  sensibility  and  emotion,  but  who  never  does 
a  manly  concrete  deed.  Rousseau,  inflaming  all 
the  mothers  of  France,  by  his  eloquence,  to  fol- 
low Nature  and  nurse  their  babies  themselves, 
while  he  sends  his  own  children  to  the  foundling 
hospital,  is  the  classical  example  of  what  I  mean. 
But  every  one  of  us  in  his  measure,  whenever, 
after  glowing  for  an  abstractly  formulated  Good, 
he  practically  ignores  some  actual  case,  among  the 
squalid  'other  particulars'  of  which  that  same 
Good  lurks  disguised,  treads  straight  on  Rous- 
seau's path.  All  Goods  are  disguised  by  the  vul- 
garity of  their  noncomitants,  in  this  work-a-day 
world;  but  woe. to  him  who  can  only  recognize 
them  when  he  thinks  them  in  their  pure  and  ab- 
stract form !  The  habit  of  excessive  novel-reading 
and  theatre-going  will  produce  true  monsters  in 
this  line.  The  weeping  of  a  Russian  lady  over  the 
fictitious  personages  in  the  play,  while  her  coach- 
man is  freezing  to  death  on  the  seat  outside,  is 
the  sort  of  thing  that  everywhere  happens  on  a 
less  glaring  scale.  Even  the  habit  of  excessive 
indulgence  in  music,  for  those  who  are  neither 
performers  themselves  nor  musically  gifted 
enough  to  take  it  in  a  purely  intellectual  way,  has 
probably  a  relaxing  effect  upon  the  character. 
One  becomes  filled  with  emotions  which  habitually 
pass  without  prompting  to  any  deed,  and  so  the 
inertly  sentimental  condition  is  kept  up.  The 
remedy  would  be,  never  to  suffer  one's  self  to 
have  an  emotion  at  a  concert,  without  expressing 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          417 

it  afterward  in  some  active  way.3  Let  the  ex- 
pression be  the  least  thing  in  the  world — speak- 
ing genially  to  one's  aunt,  or  giving  up  one's  seat 
in  a  horsecar,  if  nothing  more  heroic  offers — but 
let  it  not  fail  to  take  place.  .  .  . 

"The  drunken  Rip  Van  Winkle,  in  Jefferson's 
play,  excuses  himself  for  every  fresh  dereliction 
by  saying,  'I  won't  count  this  time/  Well!  he 
may  not  count  it,  and  a  kind  Heaven  may  not 
count  it;  but  it  is  being  counted  none  the  less. 
Down  among  his  nerve-cells  and  fibres  the  mole- 
cules are  counting  it,  registering  and  storing  it 
up  to  be  used  against  him  when  the  next  tempta- 
tion comes."  But  "as  we  become  permanent  drunk- 
ards by  so  many  separate  drinks,  so  we  become 
saints  in  the  moral,  and  authorities  and  experts  in  • 
the  practical  and  scientic  spheres,  by  so  many  sep- 
arate acts  and  hours  of  work.  Let  no  youth  have 
any  anxiety  about  the  upshot  of  his  education, 
whatever  the  line  of  it  may  be.  If  he  keep  faith- 
fully busy  each  hour  of  the  -working-day,  he  may 
safely  leave  the  final  result  to  itself.  He  can  with 
perfect  certainty  count  on  waking  up  some  fine 
morning,  to  find  himself  one  of  the  competent 
ones  of  his  generation,  in  whatever  pursuit  he  may 
have  singled  out.  Silently,  between  all  the  details 
of  his  business,  the  power  of  judging  in  all  that 
class  of  matter  will  have  built  itself  up  within 
him  as  a  possession  that  will  never  pass  away. 


"See  for  remarks  on  this  subject  a  readable  article  by  Miss  V. 
Scudder  on  "Musical  Devotees  and  Morals,"  in  the  Andover  Review, 
for  January,  1887. 


418          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Young  people  should  know  this  truth  in  advance. 
The  ignorance  of  it  has  probably  engendered  more 
discouragement  and  faintheartedness  in  youths 
embarking  on  arduous  careers  than  all  other 
causes  put  together." 

To  give  to  James'  beautiful  chapter  a  practical 
illustration  let  us  translate  for  you  from  the  sec- 
ond chapter  of  Autoine  Abalat's  "Le  Travail  du 
Style." 

"  'Nothing  which  is  done  well  is  done  quickly.' 
To  style,  above  all,  is  applicable  this  very  true 
saying  of  Joseph  de  Maistre.  Toil  is  the  very 
condition  of  a  good  style.  Save  for  exceptions 
which  we  shall  examine,  one  may  say  that  there 
isn't  a  well-written  book  but  has  cost  a  great 
deal  of  trouble;  above  all  if,  by  the  term  well 
written  book  we  understand  a  work  which  unites 
all  the  beauties  of  style.  Prose  which  is  merely 
correct  and  easy  can't  be  considered  as  a  speci- 
men of  finished  style.  Other  samples  of  prose 
join  resemblance  and-  embossment  to  naturalness 
and  to  correctness.  These  latter  works  are  su- 
perior. George  Sand  wrote  well,  but  she  had 
neither  the  Genius  of  Jean-Jaques  nor  the  color- 
ing of  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre ;  and  Chateaubriand 
shone  by  virtue  of  descriptive  qualities  which  were 
lacking  to  Bernardin  and  to  Rousseau.  More- 
over, not  to  avoid  meeting  the  objection,  let  us 
admit  at  once  that  certain  improvisors  have  at 
the  first  attempt  realized  very  beautiful  prose.  We 
shall  return  to  that. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          419 

"Having  made  this  concession,  we  must,  under 
pain  of  abdicating  all  instruction,  establish  some 
general  rules.  Well,  the  example  of  all  our  classic 
authors  teaches  us  that  labor  is  an  absolute  con- 
dition of  every  written  work.  Perfection  is  had 
by  retouching  and  recasting.  It  is  rare  for  a 
first  editing  to  be  satisfactory,  even  when  inspir- 
ation is  overflowing,  because  it  is  always  precipi- 
tate, because  we  have  not  had  time  to  reflect 
nor  to  choose  our  expressions,  and  because  we 
always  are  much  better  able  to  speak  all  than 
to  speak  well.  You  need  only  hold  a  pen,  to  per- 
ceive this  truth.  Only  slowness  and  reflection 
permit  us  to  judge  what  we  have  produced.  Recoil 
is  needed;  it  is  indispensable  to  let  our  style  cool 
off.  The  more  time  we  allow  between  the  two 
draughts,  the  better  chance  have  we  to  see  our- 
selves clearly.  Very  few  corrections  are  made 
immediately.  We  must  come  out  of  our  fever, 
leave  our  first  ideas,  drop  the  interest  in  our 
work  and  come  to  feel  differently  about  our  sub- 
ject. Only  then  come  variations  of  terms,  sur- 
prises in  expression,  economy  of  words,  the  flash 
of  images  the  sense  of  relief  and  of  life,  and 
finally  the  possibility  of  perfecting  that  which 
was  but  rough-hewn.  Compositions  written  in  an 
examination  officially  limited  to  a  very  short 
time,  are  able,  under  cerebral  pressure,  to  give  the 
measure  of  aptitude  or  the  presumption  of  talent ; 
but  never  will  they  be  well  written,  because 
they've  not  been  done  over. 


420          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

"For  the  first  drawing-up,  everyone  has  his  own 
method.  There  are  those  who  finish  with  a  breath, 
quit  to  return  to  it  again.  Others  advance  only 
slowly,  and  remodel  the  page  so  soon  as  it  is  fin- 
ished. Advice  can't  be  given  on  this.  The  method 
matters  little;  what  is  essential  is  the  necessity 
of  doing  it  over  again.  It  is  vain  to  rebel  against 
this  fact;  a  style  is  not  good  until  it  is  made 
over.  The  first  casting  is  more  or  less  close  to 
banality.  We  are  in  haste  to  write,  we  have  no 
time  to  hunt  about,  the  pen  flies  on,  we  write  what 
is  easiest,  and  what  first  comes  to  hand  is 
banality." 

At  heart  the  man  who  seeks  his  own  good  is 
dissatisfied  with  the  rewards  which  have  come 
to  him  thru  the  pursuit  of  self-interest.  Happy 
is  he,  if  he  seek  the  cure  thru  a  revolution 
of  his  own  soul.  He,  as  St.  Paul  of  old,  admires 
the  sweet  virtue  of  Charity  all  the  more  ardently, 
because  he  yearns,  as  yet  in  vain,  to  feel  its  in- 
fluence in  his  heart. 

If  you  who  read  this  passage  feel  this  desire 
of  the  heart,  that  is  circumstantial  evidence  that 
selfishness  isn't  the  fundamental  law  of  your 
nature,  else  selfishness  would  have  satisfied  you. 
A  nobler  type  of  living  will  prove  more  congenial 
to  you,  undoubtedly,  when  once  you've  sloughed 
off  the  old  habits  of  thot  and  demeanor.  To  every 
one,  in  short,  in  whom  this  chapter  finds  a  respon- 
sive echo  or  who  finds  himself  pondering  its  view- 
point after  he  has  laid  this  book  aside,  we  may  say 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          421 

confidently,  "You  are  one  of  those,  for  whom  it 
was  written."  Many  were  not  so  born  for  it  but 
you  were.  You,  without  conscious  effort,  are  al- 
ready upon  the  first  step  of  the  new  sphere  of 
development;  you're  beyond  pure  selfishness  be- 
cause that  was  never  natural  to  you."  Whoever 
has  advanced  thus  far  will  hardly  reverse  his 
evolution,  to  wallow  again  in  the  primeval  slime. 

"Foi;  he  on  honey  dew  hath  fed, 
And  drunk  the  milk  of  Paradise."* 

You  are  beyond  the  blind  sensualism  of  the 
animal,  or  the  self-centered  attention  of  the 
egoist;  you  have  entered  the  realm  of  the  nobler 
desires  of  the  aspirationist. 

The  path  of  aspiration  may  be  approached  via 
the  way  of  self -hypnotizing  habits : — by  means  of 
Meditation,  Prayer  and  the  Reading  of  inspira- 
tional and  inspiriting  books. 

SECTION  4 

Lust  of  life  ebbs  low,  and  the  appetites  sink 
down  most  easily  in  those  individuals  whose  thot 
centers  too  much  in  themselves.  Happy  are  they 
who  come  to  realize  the  cause  of  their  own  un- 
vitality  in  the  smallness  of  their  motives  for  liv- 
ing. The  motives  of  life  must  be  multiplied  in 
order  to  maintain  its  interest.  Tincture  of  iron 
isn't  the  royal  road  away  from  anemia ;  a  better 
road  may  well  be  spiritual  aspiration,  leading  at 

"•Coleridge's  Kubla  Khan. 


422          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

length  to  what  Jesus  called  the  "Kingdom  of  Heav- 
en," or  what  less  poetical  modern  psychologists 
would  call  Altruistic  Abandon. 

Once  upon  a  time  every  planet  had  an  ocean  of 
air  such  as  our  own  earth  possesses,  but  this  air 
gradually  blew  away,  or  was  absorbed  by  the 
rocks,  at  least  in  the  cases  of  the  littler  planets 
it  was  so,  for  they  didn't  keep  attracting  more 
air  toward  them.  Every  seed  at  birth  also  has  a 
certain  amount  of  starch  given  it,  even  as  the 
little  panets  have  a  certain  amount  of  air.  The 
seeds  live  on  this  starch  for  awhile,  thrive  and 
grow.  So,  too,  every  animal  is  able  to  live  for 
a  time  upon  the  fat  of  its  own  body,  but  soon  the 
planet,  the  seed,  and  the  animal  must  seek  food 
from  the  outside,  or  dwindle  and  die.  We  can't 
live  forever  as  did  the  man  and  his  dog  who  were 
starving  in  the  desert;  every  day  the  man  cut 
off  a  piece  of  the  dog's  tail,  made  for  himself  a 
soup  of  it,  and  fed  the  bone  to  the  dog  wherewith 
to  grow  more  tail. 

You've  known  children  who  hardly  could  be  per- 
suaded to  eat  enough  to  keep  them  alive.  Most 
healthy  children  are  different  from  that — oh,  so 
different — but  they  may  starve  in  spite  of  eat- 
ing, if  their  machinery  for  grinding  and  digest- 
ing what  they  eat  gets  out  of  order.  When 
a  man  who  wanted  to  be  an  English  soldier,  late- 
ly, was  told  the  army  wouldn't  take  him  because 
he  had  bad  teeth,  he  said,  "I  want  to  shoot  Ger- 
mans, not  to  bite  them!"  But  the  doctors  knew 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          423 

that  with  such  teeth  he  couldn't  be  a  strong,  well- 
fed  man,  such  as  they  wanted  for  a  soldier.  If 
this  man  had  taken  proper  care  of  his  teeth,  and 
let  the  dentist  examine  them  and  treat  them 
regularly,  he  would  have  been  allowed  to  join  the 
army,  and  go  out  and  be  crippled  for  his  country. 
However,  the  point  we  wish  to  make  here  is 
that  we  neither  physically  or  spiritually  can  fat- 
ten and  thrive  upon  ourselves  alone.  We'd  quickly 
find  that  we  are  in  the  situation  of  poor  Coriola- 
nus,  who  complained: 

"Anger's  my  meat ;  I  sup  upon  myself, 
And  so  shall  starve  with  feeding." 

The  sensualist  either  sinks  still  lower  or  rises 
to  the  level  of  egoism;  the  egoist  sinks  back  into 
sensualism  unless  he  becomes  a  man  of  moral 
aspirations;  the  Aspirationist,  in  turn  will  be- 
come egoist  again  unless  he  evolves  into  an  Al- 
truist; and  even  the  Altruist  is  insecure  in  his 
eminence  unless  in  kindliness,  modesty,  efficiency 
and  all  other  good  qualities  he  continues  to  be 
active.  He  must  continue  to  cultivate  his  quali- 
ties of  personal  efficiency  and  refinement  to  the 
end  of  achieving  the  best  results  for  society,  as 
surely  as  he  must  aim  at  the  good  of  society  if 
he  is  to  realize  the  finest  personal  qualities.  This 
is  a  point  which  ardent  reformers  are  apt  to 
overlook. 

The  cultural  and  the  social  motives  are  com- 
bined in  the  important  task  of  education.  It  is  a 


424         PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

promising  sign  that  so  many  educational  move- 
ments are  starting  among  the  workers  them- 
selves. There's  a  Workers  College  in  Boston,  as 
we  might  expect.  In  Stelton,  New  Jersey,  is  the 
Ferrer  School,  part  of  a  New  York  larger  asso- 
ciation of  extreme  radicals,  which  here  has  its 
country  colony  and  educates  children  wholly  with- 
out punishment  or  stressing  authority.  In  Brook- 
lyn, New  York,  is  the  Williamsburg  Culture  Cen- 
ter, with  its  large  number  of  (non-religious)  Sun- 
day school  classes.  The  most  noted  socialist  col- 
lege, is  of  course  the  Rand  School,  located  where 
it  can  do  a  huge  educational  work  in  the  heart  of 
New  York  City.  Another  radical  college  of  which 
we  know  is  the  Workers  Institute  in  Chicago.  We 
have  heard  something  of  a  technical-training  in- 
stitution in  the  west  run  by  the  I.  W.  W.  The 
"Wobblies"  are  one  of  several  diverse  elements 
which  jointly  control  the  thriving  Peoples  Insti- 
tute in  San  Francisco.  No  doubt  but  what  the 
list  of  such  schools  thruout  this  country  already 
is  a  long  one,  altho  our  labor  organizations  are  far 
indeed  behind  those  of  Europe. 

Since  our  own  school  in  California  has  been 
closed,  we  have  often  thot  how  much  bigger  might 
be  the  educational  harvest  to  be  reaped  in  this 
field  rather  than  in  that  of  private  institutions. 
The  thing  appeals  to  us  as  in  many  ways  a  larger 
work — to  ally  oneself  with  some  general  move- 
ment (sobeit  not  so  large  as  to  have  crystallized 
itself.)  Then  too,  a  privately  owned  school,  auto- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          425 

cratic  more  or  less  in  management  of  at  least 
its  employees,  is  in  an  amolalous  position  to  be 
preaching  democracy. 

The  Roman  Catholics  long  ago  realized  that  they 
must  keep  their  children  in  schools  of  their  own. 
They  saw  that  the  state  would  use  the  public 
school  to  indoctrinate  children  with  the  state's 
own  point  of  view.  The  Catholics  have  covered 


MOHAMMEDAN    SCHOOL. 

the  country  with  an  extensive  system  of  paro- 
chial schools,  advanced  schools,  and  colleges.  How 
long  before  the  Radicals  will  be  as  wise  as  they? 
When  they  do  will  they  be  broad  enough  to  give 
us  a  set  of  schools  which  no  more  attempt  to 
indoctrinate  with  some  new  — ism  than  to  incul- 
cate church-dogmas  and  nationalist  dogmas?  We 
doubt  whether  they'll  do  so  in  any  great  degree, 
yet  we  think  they'd  be  freer  than  are  the  popular 
schools  we  already  have.  Our  existing  history- 
texts  for  example,  to  say  nothing  of  systems  of 
school  discipline  and  the  whole  coercive  scheme, 
are  a  crime  upon  childhood.  At  any  rate  a  new 
competitor  in  the  field  should  be  welcomed.  To 
upbuild  a  system  of  radical  popular  schools,  awaits 
some  educator  of  large  calibre. 


CHAPTER  VI 

This  chapter  will  deal  with  Repression  and  its 
effects. 

Freud's  discoveries  of  the  harmful  effects  of 
emotional  repression  indicate  that  self-expression 
must  form  part  of  the  new  ethical  code.  The 
sensualist  here  is  in  the  gravest  situation  on  ac- 
count of  the  perverted  form  which  many  of  his 
tendencies  come  to  assume  because  too  much  in- 
dulged. Nor  is  the  unperverted  natural  man  in 
much  better  situation  in  the  midst  of  our  com- 
plex society  with  its  innumerable  taboos;  tho  to 
him  Art,  at  least,  opens  a  symbolic  channel  of  ex- 
pression. The  ambitious  man  will  solve  in  some 
degree  this  dilemma  by  sublimating  his  impulses 
into  forms  in  which  they  add  impetus  to  his  de- 
liberated purposes.  But  the  truly  fortunate  are 
those  whose  interest  is  the  welfare  of  society  as 
a  whole;  because  they'll  use  the  anger  which  un- 
reasonable restriction  always  arouses  in  direct 
attack  upon  this  very  repressiveness  of  society. 

SECTION  I 

"In  case  of  doubt  take  the  safe  side.  In  case 
of  grave  doubt  take  to  the  woods." 

All  enslavement  is  thru  fear.  Hence  to  be 
fearless  is  to  have  achieved  freedom.  Pain  is 
unendurable  chiefly  thru  the  fear  of  more  pain  in 
the  next  moment. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          427 

Fear  is  utilized  to  establish  habits  and  coerce 
creatures  into  acting  in  the  ways  we  desire;  by 
means  of  fear  we  may  bend  the  lower  animals 
into  habits  that  are  useful  to  us. 

One  vice,  a  brother  to  Fear,  raises  such  havoc 
with  mental  processes,  and  is,  in  every  sense,  so 
"awfully  common"  that  we  must  stop  to  say  a 
few  words  again'  it : — Lying.  It,  again,  shows  the 
danger  of  the  conceit  of  cleverness, — imagining 
you've  a  combination  that'll  beat  the  game.  This 
chapter's  no  place  to  speak  of  the  disruption  of 
communal  relations  thru  deceit,  nor  can  it  be  pre- 
tended that  no  lie  ever  brot  more  good  than  evil. 
The  point  we  wish  to  make  is,  that  of  the  two  atti- 
tudes, "I'll  lie  only  when  I'm  very  sure  it's  wise 
to,"  and  "I'll  take  my  chances  on  not  lying  even 
under  those  circumstances  where  it  surely  would 
be  better  to,"  the  second  is  the  more  prudent  state 
of  mind. 

If  you're  stupid  at  lying,  of  course  you'll  not  try 
it  so  often.  No  one  exactly  likes  being  caught  in 
lies  and  therefore  having  people  unsure  whether 
or  not  they  shall  believe  anything  he  afterward 
tells  them.  "Oh  what  a  tangled  web  we  weave 
when  first  we  practice  to  deceive,"  and  all  that. 
Every  day  of  our  lives,  questions  are  coming  up 
with  a  quick  "answer  this,  yes  or  no?"  when  we've 
no  time  to  go  into  the  likelihood  of  our  being 
caught  if  we  lie — so,  if  we  lie  sometimes,  sooner 
or  later  the  law  of  probabilities  decrees  we  must 
be  caught.  But  the  only  thing  that'll  prevent  us 


428          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

lying  at  such  times  is  to  have  a  habit  of  telling 
the  truth  automatically,  i.  e.,  at  all  times  what- 
ever. 

Take,  for  example,  the  case  of  the  ape,  in  an- 
cient times,  who  fell  overboard  from  a  ship  that 
was  passing  the  Piraeus,  the  harbor  of  Athens. 
A  dolphin,  which  saw  his  mishap,  took  him  upon 
its  back  toward  land.  Mistaking  the  ape  for  a 
man,  and  an  Athenian,  the  dolphin  asked  him, 
"Do  you  know  the  Piraeus  ?"  It  tickled  the  ape's 
vanity  to  be  mistaken  for  a  human,  and  in  his 
ignorance,  he  thot  "the  Piraeus"  must  be  some 
noted  Athenian  citizen.  Had  he  had  the  habit  of 
"automatic  truthfulness,"  he  still  would  have 
been  saved.  But  he  answered,  "0,  I  and  the 
Piraeus  are  intimate  friends.  He  often  dines  with 
me !"  This  boast  made  the  dolphin  so  angry,  that 
he  plunged, under  the  sea  and  left  the  ape  to  his 
fate. 

One's  face,  too,  becomes,  in  a  slight  measure,  a 
means  whereby  people  can  tell  whether  his  hab- 
its are  honest  or  not. 

But  that  danger,  in  lying,  of  which  we  wanted 
to  speak  so  particularly  here,  comes  of  wanting  to 
lie  convincingly  well.  The  vulgar  lie  with  their 
lips.  But  your  truly  polished  prevaricator  lies 
with  his  whole  body  and  mind.  The  most  finished 
liars  we've  encountered  are  the  natives  of  Ceylon, 
who  will  run  the  whole  gamut  of  the  emotions  to 
cheat  you  out  of  the  value  of  a  pin,  and  all  that 
with  such  art,  such  plausibility,  such  restraint, 


429 

that  after  the  conclusion  of  the  deal  your  con- 
science simply  aches  with  sympathy  for  the  poor 
fellow,  who  has  done  you  out  of  only  a  thousand 
per  cent.  "Oh  what  a  goodly  outside  falsehood 
hath."1 

The  material  profits  of  such  trickery  must  in- 
deed be  tremendous,  tho,  if  they're  to  counter- 
balance the  spiritual  losses  of  this  play-acting.2 
The  man  who  can  incline  himself  so  easily  to  de- 
ceive others,  must  be  an  unusual  character  if  that 
same  suppleness  doesn't  creep  into  his  life  in  less 
welcome  places.  How  many  persons  we've  met, 
who,  in  developing  skillful  evasiveness,  have  lost 
the  power  to  keep  to  the  point  in  an  argument, 
and  squarely  meet  the  issues  involved!  Finess 


1  Shakespeare — Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  I,  1. 

2  A   clipping   before   us   says,    in     'realizing"    the   chnr»ct°r.    the   tra- 
ditional  view,  as  old  as  dramatic  art  itself,  is  that  the  actor  will  fail 
to    achieve   the   highest    effects   unless    he  actually   allows   the   part   to 
possess  him  so  completely  that  his  body  responds  in  spontaneous  move- 
ments.    It  is  true,  indeed,  that  a  few  great  players,  like  Oquelin.  re- 
ject this  view,  and   insist  on  the  predominance  of  the  purely  intellec- 
tual  elements.     William   Archer,   the  well-known   English  criric.   in   his 
"Masks  and  Faces,"  has  collected  evidence  on  this  point  and  finds  that 
most  successful  actors  and  actresses  declare  they  must  feel  the  emotion 
th'y  express. 

Salvini.  for  example,  ssys : 

"  'If  you  do  not  weep  in  the  agony  of  grief,  if  you  do  not  blush  with 
shame,  if  you  do  not  glow  with  love,  if  you  do  not  tremble  with  t«rror, 
if  your  eyes  do  not  become  bloodshot  with  rage,  if,  in  short,  you  your- 
self do  not  intimately  experience  whatever  befits  the  diverse  characters 
and  passions  you  represent,  you  can  never  thoroughly  transfuse  into 
the  hearts  of  your  audience  the  sentiment  of  the  situation.'  " 

To  the  same  effect  Miss  Emily  Bateman,  one  of  the  greatest  emo- 
ational  actr^ses,  spys:  "If  real  tears  do  rot  come  to  my  eyes  I  dn  not 
truly  feel  what  I  am  acting,  nor  can  can  I  impress  my  audience  to 
the  same  extent  when  I  feign  emotion  as  when  I  really  feel  it.  I 
have  acted  the  part  of  Leah  for  twenty-four  years,  and  the  te?rs  always 
cor"e  to  my  ^yes  wh*n  the  little  child  says  'My  name  is  Leah.'  " 

Th»  foregoing  instances  establish  two  facts  with  positive  certainty: 
(1)  To  the  successful  actors  themselves,  the  feelings,  however  induc?d, 
are  for  the  time  being  real;  and  (2).  there  is  an  exceedingly  close 
relation  between  the  mental  state  and  the  physical  expression,  no  mat- 
ter whether  the  physical  expression  be  regarded  as  the  cause  or  as  th« 
effect  of  the  mental. 


430          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

is  necessary,  to  carry  many  points;  and  in  some 
professions,  e.  g.,  of  statesman,  detective,  etc., 
"Economy  of  truth,"  doubtless,  is  part  of  the 
game.  But  if  it's  a  question  of  one's  personal 
happiness,  we  should  bet  on  the  man  who'll  "speak 
the  truth  and  shame  the  family."  "A  crafty  fel- 
low never  has  any  peace,"  goes  the  proverb.  To 
lie  to  your  fellow-men  hardens  your  heart  in  the 
degree  that  it  softens  your  backbone;  and  a  hard 
heart  is  a  stranger  to  peace.  Lies  are  "Like  Dead 
Sea  fruits,  that  tempt  the  eye,  but  turn  to  ashes 
on  the  lips." 

This  subject  is  knitted  closely  with  that  of 
spreading  pious  legends  for  "the  greater  glory  of 
God,"  or  atrocity  tales  for  "patriotic  motives," 
(a  modern  substitute  among  more  peoples  than 
need  here  be  mentioned) .  It  is  vicious  to  preach 
that  the  defense  of  whatever  cherished  insti- 
tution justifies  us  in  besmirching  the  ideal  of 
strict  historic  truth.  "Truthe  is  the  hyeste  thing 
that  man  may  kepe."3 

Deceit  undermines  not  only  all  relations  be- 
tween the  deceiver  and  his  fellows,  but,  for  three 
reasons,  it  brings  chaos  into  his  own  thinking. 

First,  because,  as  you  will  remember,  every  lie 
you  "got  away  with"  confirmed  you  in  the  feeling 
that  whether  or  not  it  were  "an  abomination  un- 
to the  Lord"  certainly  it  was  "a  very  present  help 
in  time  of  trouble."4  Having  let  down  the  bar- 
riers by  ever  so  little,  you  lost  the  habit  (which, 

"Chaucer,   Frankeleyns  Tale. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          431 

as  we  hope,  you  once  had)  of  automatically  tell- 
ing the  truth  upon  all  those  little  occasions,  a 
hundred  of  which  come  up  every  day,  when 
there's  no  time  to  think.  If  there  always  were 
time  enough  so  you  could  figure  out  just  how 
much  other  people  could  be  expected  to  know  of 
the  truth,  then  you  might  always  succeed  in  de- 
ceiving them.  But  life  is  so  full  of  sudden  sur- 
prises, that  unless  we're  in  the  habit  of  telling 
the  truth  always,  we  usually  will  have  to  spend  a 
good  deal  of  time  making  new  lies  to  back  up  the 
old  ones.  Telling  the  truth  saves  worry. 

Secondly,  if  still  you  persist  that  you  want  to 
be  a  liar,  we're  afraid  you'll  want  to  be  a  clever 
one.  Remain  a  stupid  liar  if  you're  wise;  when 
you  become  a  clever  liar,  you  become  a  fool.  This 
is  because  to  be  an  artist  at  lying  means  you 
must  throw  your  whole  soul  into  it;  yes,  and  be- 
lieve in  it,  yourself,  accepting  on  faith  what  you 
know  to  be  a  fable — making  a  religion  of  it,  in 
short.  Do  you  think  such  practices  can  leave 
your  intellect  unharmed?  Do  you  think,  if  you 
today  practice  persuading  yourself  that  black  is 
white  you  can  remain  a  careful,  skeptical,  scien- 
tific thinker,  reasoning  carefully,  and  not  easily 
deceived?"  "No  man  can  follow  two  masters." 

Thirdly,  the  new  branch  of  mental  therapy 
called  psycho-analysis,  shows  that  in  extreme 
cases  terrible  all-around  harm  to  health  may  re- 


4  St.  Paul. 

Apropos   of   Expression,    we   may   discuss   the   necessity   of   adequate 
provision  for  play. 


432         PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

suit    from    pretending    not    to    feel    what    you 
really  do. 

Lije  Williams  was  haled  to  court  to  answer  a 
complaint  arising  out  of  a  broken  bargain.  Among 
the  witnesses  called  was  one  Steve  Collins. 

"Mr.  Collins,"  said  the  examining  lawyer,  "you 
know  the  defendant  in  this  case,  do  you  not?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  answered  Collins. 

"What  is  his  reputation  for  veracity?"  con- 
tinued the  lawyer.  "Is  he  regarded  as  a  man 
who  never  tells  the  truth?" 

"Waal,  I  can't  say  that  he  don't  never  tell  the 
truth,"  replied  Steve,  "but  I  do  know  that  if  he 
wanted  his  hogs  to  come  to  dinner  he'd  have  to 
git  somebody  else  to  call  em!" 

Apropos  of  Expression,  we  may  discuss  the 
necessity  of  adequate  provision  for  play. 

We  find  to  hand  an  old  excerpt,  perhaps  put 
out  by  the  playground  association,  which  runs: 
"Societies  to  the  number  of  111,  406  athletic 
clubs,  and  59  industrial  organizations  were  report- 
ed by  Sheldon5  among  1,139  boys,  and  911  such 
associations  among  1,145  girls.  Forbush6  found 
among  1,022  boys  862  societies,  of  which  77  per 
cent  were  predatory  or  athletic.  Puffer  discov- 
ered that  128  of  146  boys  in  the  Lyman  Indus- 
trial School  were  members  of  gangs  devoted  to 
sociability  and  physical  activity,  or  in  general  3 
boys  in  4.7  "The  time  for  the  formation  of 


5  American  Journal  of  Psychology.     V.  9,  p.  429. 
8  Pedagogical  Seminary.     V.  7    p.  313. 
7  Pedagogical  Seminary-     V.  12,  p.  175. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          433 

gangs  is  from  10  to  11  years  of  age  to  about  the 
16th  year.  Under  certain  conditions  the  period 
may  be~  extended,  but  when  that  is  the  case  it 
usually  indicates  arrested  development.  Gangs 
are  the  expression  of  primitive  tendencies.  An 
environment  incapable  of  draining  off  these  in- 
stincts into  channels  which  will  make  for  social 
growth  perpetuates  the  racial  impulses  of  early 
man.  Examples  are  the  Mafia  ....  and  the  Ca- 
morra  ....  The  history  of  criminology  is  replete 
with  organizations  that  owe  their  existence  to  the 
survival  of  primitive  instincts."8  All  of  which, 
let  it  nevertheless  be  observed,  is  not  to  be  taken 
as  indicative  that  even  the  "primitive  instincts 
themselves  might  not  quite  easily  embody  them- 
selves usefully,  even  today. 

New  York  police  captains  several  years  ago 
told  the  committee  on  small  parks  that  they  had 
no  trouble  with  boys  who  live  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  playgrounds  and  parks."9 

After  two  years  of  parks,  the  Chicago  South 
Side  "showed  a  decrease  in  delinquency  of  17 
per  cent,  relative  to  the  delinquency  of  the  whole 
city,  while  the  rest  of  the  city  had  increased  its 
delinquency  12  per  cent."10 

"If  we  consider  three  districts  in  the  South 
Side  which  are  better  equipped  with  playgrounds 

8  Swift,  in  "Youth  and  the  Race."  p.  246-7.     He  gives  at  a  footnote 
"numerous  examples"    (of  organizations  ba»?d  on  primitive  instincts) 
"mpybe  found  in  Jacob  A.  Ri's's  'How  *he  Other  Half  Lives.' 

9  Swift,  "Youth  and  the  Race,"  p.  103. 

•  10Allen   Burns,  reprint  from  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Second  Annual 
Playground  Association,"  p.  11. 


434          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

and  apparatus  than  the  other  portions  of  that 
section  we  find  that  two  of  them  which  had  a 
rapid  increase  in  population  during  the  period 
under  consideration  showed  a  decrease  in  delin- 
quency of  28  per  cent  and  33  per  cent  respec- 
tively, while  the  delinquency  of  the  third,  in 
which  the  population  remained  more  nearly  uni- 
form, decreased  70  per  cent.  And  this  decrease 
occurred-  at  a  time  when  the  delinquency  of  the 
entire  city  increased  11  per  cent.  In  St.  Louis, 
again,  the  police  reports  have  shown  a  decrease 
of  50  per  cent  in  juvenile  crime  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  playgrounds  during  the  summer  months 
when  they  were  open.11 

Already  we've  given  some  brief  history  of  the 
psychoanalytic  movement.  Let  us  now  survey 
somewhat  more  widely  the  entire  field. 

Although  psychoanalysis  was  originated  by 
Dr.  Sigmund  Freud,  some  of  his  pupils  have  start- 
ed schools  of  their  own,  based  upon  slight  or 
serious  divergences  from  his  position  on  various 
technical  points. 

From  the  four  primal  instincts  above  men- 
tioned, Freud  has  singled  out  the  reproductive  as 
being,  on  account  of  the  great  repression  accord- 
ed it  in  our  civilization,  the  source  of  all  neuroses. 
He  holds  that  inasmuch  as  in  our  modern  life  the 
instincts  of  nutrition  and  derivatives12  are  fairly 


11  Swift.     "Youth  and  the  Race."  p.   104. 

12  Prof.  James  dr--w  up  a  l^ng  list  of  human  irstincts,  to  refute  the 
notion  that  man  had  fewer  instincts  than  the  lower  animals.     An   in- 
stinct has  been  defined  as  a  "birth-given  tendency  to  act  in  a  specific 
way."      Examples   are  the  tendency   of   all    birds   to  build   nests,    even 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          435 

satisfied  in  most  of  us,  therefore  it's  only  the 
love  instincts  which  make  trouble.  Freud's  own 
classification  of  instincts,  therefore,  runs  as  fol- 
lows: Primary  are  the  tendencies  to  normal 
active  and  passive  sexual  role;  secondary  are 
sadism  and  masochism;  tertiary  are  "Schaulust" 
— pleasurable  curiosity  in  beholding  sex  phe- 
nomena— and  exhibitionism. 

As  opposed  to  this,  Adler,  the  first  prominent 
pupil  to  break  away  from  Freud,  emphasizes  as 
the  center  of  all  complexes  the  Ego,  and  believes 
that  neuroses  are  simply  inefficient  attempts  to 
compensate  symbolically  for  slights  to  self-re- 
spect. Personally,  we  think  that  Freud's  pleasure- 
motive  and  Adler's  masculine  protest  are  two 
compensating  branches,  of  the  family  of  the  ro- 
mantic instincts,  whose  relative  importance  will 
vary  according  to  the  individual  who  is  being 


tho  they  have  been  hatched  and  reared  indoors  and  never  have  seen 
a  nest ;  or  the  tendency  of  dogs  to  make  scratching  motions  suitable 
for  burying  a  bone,  even  though  since  puopyhood  they've  lived,  well- 
fed,  in  a  house  with  h?rd  floors.  A  birdling  who  has  never  seen  a 
nest,  or  a  puppy  who  has  never  known  the  use  of  buried  food,  can 
hardly  be  presumed  to  act  in  th-se  ways  from  a  calculation  of  future 
bliss  to  be  thus  gained.  No  more  is  this  the  case  with  every  day  ac- 
tions of  human  beings. 

Four  innate  tendencies  are  so  much  more  primitive  than  any  other* 
that  the  rest  are  considered  as  descended  from  them.  Therefore,  as 
we've  said,  we  conveniently  may  think  of  the  Tree  of  Life  as  having 
two  main  trunks — one  the  tendency  to  seek  things  that  it  feel*  are 
desirable ;  the  other  the  tendency  to  avoid  what  it  feels  are  odious. 
The  first  of  the  trunks  aeain  silitting  giv-s  as  a  pros«lc  branch  the 
tendency  to  assimilate  food,  and  as  a  romantic  branch  the  tendency  to 
unite  with  a  mate  for  reproduction  ;  conversely,  the  second  trunk  of  the 
tree  of  life  also  splitting  gives  us  as  a  prosaic  branch  the  tendency  to 
flee  from  danger  and  as  a  romantic  branch  the  tendercy  to  combat 
enemies.  The  emotions  corresponding  to  these  primal  instincts  are 
hunger  end  love,  fear  ?nd  anger. 

As  descended  from  the  primal  assimilation-of-food  instinct,  we'd 
class  hunting  with  its  further  derivatives  of  play  and  of  general  phys- 
ical activity;  also  hoarding,  with  its  derivatives  of  collecting,  and  so 
forth. 


436          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

analyzed;  and  will  be  emphasized  according  to 
whether  the  analyst  himself  is  predominently  of 
this  or  of  the  other  make-up.  Jung  recognizes  a 
value  in  both  the  Freudian  and  Adlerian  ex- 
planations, .but  he  puts  a  great  deal  of  emphasis 
also  on  what  we  may  call  the  higher  branching 
of  the  tree  of  instincts,  and  not  merely  upon  these 
two  fundamental  tendencies.  Moreover,  Jung 
considers  it  necessary  to  give  more  attention 
than  his  predecessors  to  not  merely  analyze  the 
motives  of  action,  but  to  see  in  what  direction  the 
character  of  the  individual  is  trending  and  how 
he  may  form  a  helpful  new  systhesis  of  all  his 
tendencies. 

Among  the  proofs  offered  to  psychoanalysts  to 
substantiate  their  concept  of  the  unconscious 
part  of  the  mind  one  would  seem  to  be  the  fact 
of  disassociated  personality.  For  example,  there 
are  many  persons  who,  on  account  perhaps  of 
some  fall  or  injury  to  the  head,  will  forget  for 
many  years  who  they  are — perhaps  go  off  to  some 
other  city  and  begin  life  anew — and  eventually 
awake  to  the  trends  of  thought  of  the  original 
character,  return  to  their  former  home,  resume 
their  former  life,  and  entirely  forget  all  they  did 
during  the  intermittent  years.  It  is  a  well  known 
fact  that  in  hypnotism  the  subject  may  go  from 
one  trance  into  another  deeper  and  deeper,  each 
time  assuming  an  entirely  different  character, 
and  upon  being  hypnotized  again  he  will  resume 
one  or  another  of  these  definite  states.  Further- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          437 

more,  each  of  us  is  surprised  sometimes  at  the 
way  in  which  different  attitudes  arise  seemingly 
from  nowhere  and  overwhelm  him;  as  Professor 
James  (or  was  it  Emerson?)  said:  "Our  moods 
<Jo  not  know  each  other."  Finally,  there  is  the 
tremendous  amount  of  evidence  not  familiar  to 
the  layman  but  available  for  all  those  who  will 
read  the  literature  compiled  by  all  psychanalists, 
to  the  effect  that  certain  ideational  complexes 
can  be  dug  up  from  some  portion  of  the  mind  of 
every  individual,  which  he  thereafter  recognizes 
as  his  own,  and  recognizes  as  the  basis  of  actions 
which  he  hitherto  falsely  explained  on  rational 
grounds. 

The  reason  why  these  complexes  of  ideas  get 
detached  from  the  prime  body  of  our  conscious 
thoughts,  we  find  explained  by  human  impatience 
of  recognizing  that  desires  have  any  existence  in 
us  which  we  deplore  or  despise.  For  there  is  a 
double  tendency  in  our  own  natures,  at  once  for 
and  against  every1  proposition, — the  tendency 
technically  called  Bi-valence.  The  conception  of 
Bi-valence  is  due,  we  believe,  chiefly  to  Freud  and 
Adler,  and  it  may  be  explained  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows :  Whenever  we  have  an  impulse  to  perform 
an  act  of  a  certain  kind,  there  goes  with  it  always 
an  impulse  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction;  and 
positive  conduct  is  possible  only  as  one  of  these 
tendencies  continuously  outbalances  the  other. 
This  doubleness  of  value  in  our  impulses  is  called 
ambi-tendency.  When,  however,  we  have  lived 


438          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

out  to  the  point  of  surfeit  our  tendencies  in  one 
direction,  it  will  often  happen  that  the  directly 
opposite  tendency  then  gains  the  ascendency. 
This  is  why  frequently  an  individual  whose  life 
has  been  most  unexceptionable  will  suddenly 
seem  to  change  his  character  completely  and  com- 
mit acts  of  the  most  scandalous  nature.  It  ex- 
plains, on  the  other  hand,  why  persons  who  have 
lived  out  only  the  evil  side  of  their  characters, 
as  e.  g.,  gamblers,  prostitutes,  etc.,  astonish  those 
who  do  not  well  understand  human  nature  by 
manifesting  a  wholly  unexpected  self-sacrifice, 
generosity,  etc.  The  libido,  surfeited  with  evil, 
craves  good. 

In  each  of  us  exists  this  complex  nature,  re- 
sulting from  his  multitude  of  contradictory  in- 
stincts, but,  moreover,  every  impulse  that 
prompts  us  to  act  in  one  direction  is  accompanied 
by  a  contrary  tendency  to  act  in  precisely  the 
opposite  manner.  We  cannot  think,  for  instance, 
of  remaining  seated  without  the  idea  occurring  of 
getting  up.  Where  the  individual  completely  de- 
nies all  expression,  even  in  sublimated  or  sym- 
bolical form,  for  a  long  period  of  time,  to  any  ele- 
ment of  his  nature,  that  neglected  tendency  is 
likely  at  some  time  to  completely  overbalance  his 
whole  system  of  life  and  cause  him  to  run  amuck 
to  the  astonishment  no  less  of  himself  than  of  his 
friends.  The  saint  will  become  sinner;  and  the 
sinner  will  experience  emotional  religious  con- . 
version,  throw  himself  ecstatically  into  work  of 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          439 

reform  or  whatever  it  may  be,  or  perhaps  will 
show  a  degree  of  kindness  and  self-sacrifice  that 
the  ordinary  good  person  despairs  of.  This  ex- 
plains many  of  the  inconsistencies  of  life. 

Moreover,  where  our  natural  desires  are  slight- 
ed in  a  way  that  we  find  it  impossible  to  rem- 
edy directly,  our  nature  tends  to  compensate  it- 
self for  these  injuries  in  some  other  direction. 
In  the  case  of  a  normal  person,  the  repressions 
of  his  personality  which  he  has  experienced  may 
spur  him  to  renewed  effort  and  to  the  achieve- 
ment of  extraordinary  success.  Thus  we  find 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  his  childhood  when 
scorned  by  all  his  playmates  at  the  aristocratic 
French  military  academy,  plunging  into  his 
studies  and  evolving  his  plans  for  future  great- 
ness with  a  concentration  of  energy  which  goes 
far  to  explain  his  subsequent  career.  Again,  the 
philosopher  Kant  produced  his  system  of  meta- 
physics as  a  means  of  withdrawing  from  the 
physical  pain  which  his  illness  caused  him.  The 
neurotic  is  the  person  in  whom  this  compensa- 
tion takes  a  useless  channel,  a  merely  symbolical 
or  delusive  channel,  or  in  which  it  goes  to  an  ex- 
treme that  is  as  bad  as  or  worse  than  the  origi- 
nal trouble  itself.  This  last  case,  that  of  swing- 
ing irrationally  far  to  an  opposite  extreme,  is 
over-compensation. 

Adler  it  is  who  has  stressed  the  most  emphati- 
cally the  principle  of  over-compensation.  The 
philosopher  Kant  tells  us  that  he  entered  upon  his 


440          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tremendous  philosophical  speculation  as  a  means 
of  relief  to  the  physical  pain  to  which  he  was  sub- 
ject. By  abstracting  his  mind  from  his  ailment 
as  effectually  as  was  required  upon  metaphysical 
problems  he  was  able  for  the  time  being  to  forget 
his  suffering.  There  are  many  other  similar  in- 
stances of  where  great  work  has  been  accom- 
plished in  order  to  take  the  mind  away  from  its 
unpleasant  obsessions.  Still  more,  however,  is  the 
tendency  to  compensate  shown  in  our  daily  life  by 
the  efforts  made  by  an  individual  who  feels  him- 
self held  in  dis-esteem  on  account  of  let  us  say 
physical  deficiencies,  the  efforts  to  achieve  some 
manner  of  success,  in  a  business  or  intellectual 
way.  Now  it  may  happen  that  the  compensation 
of  which  these  things  are  the  normal  and  proper 
expressions  may  instead  take  the  form  of  some 
adaption  which  is  wholly  inefficient  to  achieve  the 
end  desired.  It  may  result  simply  in  a  tremendous 
ego-mania,  in  foolish  bragging,  etc.  These  and 
still  more  pathological  forms  of  compensation 
never  bring  to  the  individual  in  any  completeness 
the  satisfaction  which  they  are  designed  by  the 
unconscious  to  achieve  and  consequently  he  is 
likely  to  continue  developing  more  and  more  seri- 
ous psychosis.  To  these  forms  of  the  "manly  pro- 
test" Adler  attributes  the  formation  of  all  mental 
ailments.  That  is  to  say,  where  Freud  lays  stress 
chiefly  on  the  amatory  phase  of  life  Adler  lays 
stress  on  its  opposite  side,  the  vanity  branch. 
Jung  takes  the  position  that  both  these  concepts 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          441 

are  necessary,  and  balance  each  other;  and,  in- 
deed, it  may  be  thot  that  the  one  explanation  is 
most  applicable  to  one  individual  and  the  other 
explanation  the  more  applicable  to  others.  Over 
compensation  means  the  carrying  of  a  compensa- 
tory tendency  beyond  the  degree  of  a  sane  balance. 
Jung  devotes  Chapter  VI  of  his  Analytic  Psy- 
chology to  a  criticism  of  Bleuler's  "Theory  of 
Schizophrenic  Negativism."  Bleuler's  concept  of 
ambivalency  and  ambitendency,  is  that  every  ten- 
dency is  balanced  by  its  opposite  tendency,  and 
(as  Jung  adds)  "positive  action  is  produced  by  a 
comparatively  small  leaning  to  one  side  of  the 
scale."  The  causes  of  Schizophrenic  negativism 
are  summed  up  by  Bleuler  as  (1)  "The  autistic 
retirement  of  the  patient  into  his  own  phantasies. 
(2)  The  existence  of  a  life-wound  (complex) 
which  must  be  protected  from  injury.  (3)  The 
misconception  of  the  environment  and  of  its  mean- 
ing. (4)  The  directly  hostile  relation  to  environ- 
ment. (5)  The  pathological  irritability  of  Schizo- 
phrenics. (6)  The  'press  of  ideas,'  and  other  ag- 
gravations of  action  and  thought.  (7)  Sexuality 
with  its  ambivalency  on  the  emotional  plane  is 
often  one  of  the  roots  of  negative  reaction.  The 
painfulness  of  the  complex  necessitates  a  censor- 
ship of  its  expression.  Thought  disturbance  is 
the  result  of  a  complex;  thought  pressure  is  due 
to  Schizophrenic  introversion.  Resistance  springs 
from  peculiar  sexual  development.  Schizophrenia 
shows  a  preponderance  of  introversion  mechan- 


442          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

isms.  Ambivalency  is  the  concept  which  "gives  ex- 
pression to  the  universal  and  ever  present  inner 
association  of  pairs  of  opposites."  (A  contrary 
meaning  of  root  words  is  mentioned  by  Freud.) 
So  also  with  ambitendency :  "Neither  is  specific 
of  schizophrenia,  but  applies  equally  to  the  neu- 
roses and  the  normal.  All  that  remains  of  kata- 
tonic  negativism  is  the  intentional  contrast,  i.  e. 
the  resistance,  .  .  .  the  dynamic  factor  which 
makes  manifest  the  ambivalency  is  everywhere 
latent.  What  is  characteristic  of  the  diseased 
mind  is  not  ambivalency  but  resistance."  "It  is 
a  conflict  of  wills,  bringing  about  a  neurotic  con- 
dition of  'dis-harmony  within  the  self.'  This  con- 
dition is  the  only  'splitting  of  the  psyche'  known 
to  us,  and  is  not  so  much  to  be  regarded  as  a  pre- 
disposing cause,  but  rather  as  a  manifestation  re- 
sulting from  the  inner  conflict, — the  'incompati- 
bility of  the  complex'  (Rikin)  ,"13 

Vanity  always  is  ill-bred  and  intolerable;  from 
the  above  we  may  recognize  in  it  also  the  hall- 
mark of  unconsciously  sensed  inferiority  deserv- 
ing rather  pity  than  the  hatred  it  always  calls 
down.  When  it  calls  down  hatred,  we  may  know 
that  it  has  antagonized  a  counter-vanity  in  the 
hater.  A  person  who  has  been  analyzed,  and 
stripped  thereby  of  the  garment  of  vanity  which 
he  once  assumed  as  a  protection  against  the  world, 
learns  to  despise  these  affectations  in  himself  as 
he  perceives  that  to  persons  who  know,  vanity  is 


"C.   G.  Jungr — Analytic   Psychology,  pp.   101,   102. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          443 

a  tell-tale  evidence  of  deficiencies  acknowledged 
by  the  unconscious.  It  is  by  no  mere  coincidence 
that  in  this  day  of  world-wide  revolt  against  the 
harsh  economic  foundations  of  present-time  so- 
ciety, we  should  witness  the  birth  of  a  psycho- 
therapy, which  discovers  that  repression  of  nat- 
ural desire  is  also  the  cause  of  individual  ill- 
nesses. And  with  the  evidence  pointing  so  clear- 
ly towards  need  of  a  mitigation  of  the  severity 
alike  of  our  social  system  and  of  our  mental 
therapy  as  the  only  road  towards  avoiding  the 
hysterias  which  seem  to  be  the  regular  accom- 
paniment of  civilization,  it  would  be  strange  in- 
deed if  we  found  education,  which  is  life  in  minia- 
ture, a  contradictory  case. 

As  in  every  other  field,  the  proper  starting 
point  is  not  the  exasperation  we  adults  feel  when 
children  decline  to  accept  our  point  of  view,  but 
the  cause  of  transgression  in  terms  of  the  nature 
of  children.  We  must  recognize  that  whereas  the 
young  lion,  ape,  or  eagle  finds  himself  in  an  en- 
vironment to  which  thousands  of  centuries  of 
evolution  have  had  time  to  adapt  him  quite  com- 
pletely, the  young  human's  environment,  on  the 
contrary,  is  so  totally  different  from  what  it  was 
even  a  thousand  years  ago,  that  if  our  ancestors 
of  that  time  were  to  return  to  this  room,  they 
would  be  as  bewildered  at  our  ways  as  we  dis- 
dainful of  theirs.  But  though  our  crude  instincts 
are  thus  incompatible  with  civilization,  yet  we 
are  as  instinctively  and  as  equally  averse  to  re- 


444          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

nouncing  all  that  civilized  life  offers  us;  hence 
comes  at  once  an  inner  conflict.  This  conflict — 
more  especially  if  it  becomes  repressed  into  the 
unconscious  part  of  our  mind — may  cause  us  to 
experiment  upon  the  patience,  and  upon  the  all 
around  adequacy  to  the  situation,  of  those  who  as- 
sume to  be  our  guardians. 

But  perhaps  you  will  ask,  "What  is  the  uncon- 
scious; what  definitions  have  been  given  of  it?" 
Freud  considers  the  unconscious  as  a  sort  of  gar- 
bage can  into  which  are  cast  all  those  desires 
which  for  social  or  religious  or  other  reasons  have 
become  unbearable  to  our  conscious  mind.  Lay 
regards  it  as  a  sort  of  a  dwelling  place  of  Titan 
emotions,  which  it  is  our  business  to  drive  back 
where  they  belong.  This  is,  of  course,  a  concep- 
tion hardly  consistent  with  the  other  hypothesis 
of  psychoanalysis.  White  defines  as  the  part  of 
the  psyche  on  which  reality  plays,  and  strikes  the 
spark  of  the  conscious.  Jung  regards  it  as  the 
sum  of  all  processes  below  the  threshold  of  the 
conscious,  and  not  only  the  abiding  place  of  re- 
jected desires,  but  the  source  from  which  the  fu- 
ture conscious  states  spring.14 

Again,  you  will  ask  us :  "What  proofs  have  we 
of  the  unconscious?"  The  most  evident  proof 
would  seem  to  be  our  ability  to  learn  new  habits, 
from  which  we  are  then  able  to  divert  our  con- 
scious attention,  feeling  sure  that  an  unconscious 
automatism  will  then  take  care  of  their  subse- 


14For  this   summary   we're   indebted   to  Mrs.    Wilshire. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          445 

quent  performance.  Another  proof  is  in  the  fact 
of  dissociate  personality;  for  example,  there 
are  many  persons  who,  on  account  perhaps  of 
some  fall  or  injury  to  the  head,  will  forget  for 
many  years  who  they  are — perhaps  go  off  to 
some  other  city  and  begin  life  anew — and  even- 
tually again  awake  to  the  trends  of  thought  of 
the  original  character,  return  to  their  former 
home,  resume  their  former  life,  and  entirely  for- 
get all  they  did  during  the  intermittent  years.  It 
is  a  well  known  fact  that  in  hypnotism  the  sub- 
ject may  go  from  one  trance  into  another  deeper 
and  deeper,  each  time  assuming  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent character,  and  upon  being  hypnotized 
again  he  will  resume  one  or  another  of  these  def- 
inite states.  Furthermore,  each  of  us  is  surprised 
sometimes  at  the  way  in  which  different  attitudes 
arise  seemingly  from  nowhere  and  overwhelm 
him,  as  Professor  James  (or  was  it  Emerson?) 
said :  "Our  moods  do  not  know  each  other."  Final- 
ly, there  is  the  tremendous  amount  of  evidence 
not  familiar  to  the  layman  but  available  for  all 
those  who  will  read  the  literature  compiled  by 
all  psychanalists,  to  the  effect  that  certain  idea- 
tional  complexes  can  be  dug  up  from  some  por- 
tion of  the  mind  of  every  individual,  which  he 
thereafter  recognizes  as  his  own,  and  recognizes 
as  the  basis  of  actions  which  he  hitherto  falsely 
explained  on  rational  grounds. 

As  for  the  reason  why  these  complexes  of  ideas 
get  detached  from  the  body    of   our   conscious 


446          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

thoughts,  the  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  our 
impatience  of  recognizing  what  stands  in  contrast 
to  our  superficial  wishes,  for  there  is  a  double 
tendency  in  our  own  natures  which  we  already 
have  explained,  Bivalence. 

We  will  trace  for  you  in  very  brief  way  the 
history  of  psychotherapy  as  it  has  developed  into 
analysis.  The  older  school  of  Psychologists 
were  chiefly  philosophical  until  about  1860 
Fechner  (following  Weber's  lead)  and  his 
learned  pupil  Wuunt  struck  out  a  new  path.  Still 
the  academic  psychologists,  if  they  further  con- 
cerned themselves,  no  longer  indeed  with  the 
purely  metaphysical  aspects  of  the  subject,  at 
least  were  now  interested  in  only  those  phases 
of  it  which  knit  up  very  closely  with  physiology. 
Somewhere  in  the  80's  Breuer  struck  out  the 
new  line  which  his  more  famous  colleague  Freud 
has  developed  into  what  Bleuler  distinguishes  by 
the  name  of  "deeper  psychology" — meaning  the 
psychology  of  those  underlying  currents  of  the 
unconscious  which  are  the  chief  determinants  of 
our  actual  conduct. 

Breuer  had  a  patient,  a  young  woman  whose 
arm  occasionally  became  paralyzed,  and  who  had 
for  some  time  been  unable  to  speak  her  native  lan- 
guage. He  gradually  elicited  from  her  the  story 
of  how  this  condition  had  come  about.  Years  ago 
she  had  acted  as  nurse  to  her  invalid  father  and 
one  evening  had  fallen  asleep  at  his  bedside  with 
her  arm  hanging  over  the  foot  of  the  bed.  She 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          447 

awoke  dreaming  that  a  snake  had  come  toward 
her  father  and  when  she  attempted  to  save  him 
her  arm  was  paralyzed  and  the  tips  of  her  fingers 
were  all  little  snakes  heads  when  she  attempted 
to  cry  out  she  was  unable  to  speak  until  she  hap- 
pened to  think  of  some  nursery  rhymes  in  the 
English  language  and  afterwards  she  was  able  to 
converse  in  that  language  alone.  Of  course  the 
paralysis  was  easy  to  trace  to  the  feeling  of  the 
arm  to  being  asleep.  Thus  was  evolved  by 
Breuer  the  conception  of  hysteria  as  due  to  cer- 
tain foreign  bodies  as  it  were  in  the  psyche  which 
might  be  removed  by  a  process  called  catharsis. 
Hence  the  term  mental  catharsis  or  abreaction. 
Freud  at  first  accepted  this  theory  but  presently 
he  came  to  wonder  why  it  was  that  experiences 
of  this  sort  which  were  often  very  puerile  in  their 
make  up  often  produced  such  tremendous  effects. 
Eventually  he  had  to  conclude  that  not  to  the 
mere  event  in  itself  but  to  an  already  present 
neurotic  constitution  must  be  attributed  the  sub- 
sequent neurosis. 

Moreover  he  found  that  every  trauma — which  is 
the  technical  work  for  these  mental  foreign  bodies 
— contined  an  element  of  sexuality;  and  it  was 
the  emphasis  upon  this  point  which  caused  most 
of  the  tremendous  hostility  with  which  his  wrft- 
ings  were  first  received.  Among  Freud's  many 
pupils  we  shall  only  mention  as  among  the 
first  Bleuler  as  above  noted;  Adler,  who  in  con- 
tradistinction to  Freud  considered  the  nature  of 


448          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

all  neurosis  as  not  sexual  but  involving  the  egotis- 
tic will  to  power ;  and  Jung,  the  head  of  the  Zurich 
School.  The  earliest  method  of  treatment  that 
we  can  call  psycho-analytic  was  the  cathartic 
based  upon  the  theory  that  the  neurosis  was  due 
to  a  trauma — a  foreign  body  in  the  unconscious. 
This,  however,  passed  away  with  the  realization 
that  these  experiences  to  which  neuroses  were 
often  seemingly  traced  would  not  of  themselves 
have  caused  any  such  trouble  had  they  occurred 
to  a  person  not  already  neurotically  constituted. 
We  can  find  illustrations  of  this  fact  in  a  field, 
that  of  war-neuroses,  which  is  especially  related 
to  our  present  of  topic  of  fear.  "Of  250  cases 
of  objective  disorders,  Adrian  and  Eyland  found 
99  cases  with  paralysis  of  one  or  more  extremities 
and  18  with  disturbances  of  gait.  .  .  these  cases 
usually  give  a  suggestion  of  external  injury  in 
their  history;  thus  a  man  who  has  fallen  on  his 
shoulder  will  have  paralysis  of  that  arm."  Evi- 
dently the  fall  onto  the  shoulder  merely  served 
as  a  convenient  means  of  localizing  into  that  mem- 
ber a  disorder  which  otherwise  would  have  oc- 
curred somewhere  else. 

In  practically  all  cases  it  was  found  that  where 
we  are  face  to  face  with  a  neurosis  of  any  kind 
the  first  question  for  us  to  ask  is  "Qui  bono?"  (of 
what  use) .  Terhune  has  compiled  a  table  of  vari- 
ous cases;  among  them  we  may  note  some  such 
as  photophobias  (fear  of  light)  of  which  six  per 
cent  are  mostly  easily  accounted  for  thru  the  assq- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          449 

elation  of  light  with  the  blinding  and  terrifying 
explosion  of  a  shell  which  began  the  trouble. 
But  other  cases  "the  symptoms  of  war  neurasthe- 
nia .  .  f atigability ;  weakness  vague  obsessions 
or  fears ; . . .  shortness  of  breath  . . ."  or  again  "the 
symptoms  of  war  hysteria  . . .  disorders  of  special 
senses — blindness  and  other  disorders  of  vision, 
deafness,  .  .  .  and  anosmia  (loss  of  smell)  motor 
disturbances;  paralysis  .  .  .  sensory  disturbances 
.  .  .  pain,  etc. — all  these  serve  the  purpose  of  un- 
fitting the  victim  to  return  again  to  the  fighting 
line.  Without  an  audience  the  tremors  stopped. 
One  authority  tells  of  a  man  who  took  his  various 
treatments  in  a  very  bored  way,  remarking  that 
all  these  things  had  been  tried  out  upon  him  but 
without  any  success.  Civil  cases  "frequently  .  .  . 
are  made  worse  by  litigation  in  the  courts  over 
damage  suits,  and  it  has  also  been  noted,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  some  are  wholly  relieved  of  their 
paralysis  and  other  complaints  soon  after  a  set- 
tlement has  been  reached."  Terhune  states  that 
a  severe  case  of  shell-shock  in  wounded  is  rare. 
Woof sohn  comments  upon  the  fact  that  wounded 
soldiers  do  not  suffer  from  shell-shock  except  in 
rare  instances  "prisoners  of  war  but  rarely  de- 
velop a  neurosis,  only  eigjit  cases  occurring  among 
80,000  French  prisoners." 

Following  the  Carthartic  method  of  analysis, 
the  Association  method  came  into  prominence; 
and  at  length  Freud  elaborated  what  is  essentially 


450          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

the  staff  upon  which  the  psycho  analysis  leans, 
the  method  of  dream-analysis. 

We  resume  our  brief  account  of  the  analytic 
movement  here  to  show  you  (1)  the  role  which 
fear  may  play  in  causing  mental  disturbances, 
and  (2)  to  give  you  a  glimpse  of  the  mechanism 
of  the  unconscious,  which  never  reacts  in  an  in- 
different way  to  any  experience,  but  expresses  in 
a  neurotic  or  in  an  hysterical  way  whatever  it  is 
not  permitted  to  express  normally.  If  we  have 
chosen  pathological  cases  for  the  purposes  of  ex- 
plaining this  to  you,  it  is  because  "pathological 
types  show  only  with  the  clearness  of  exaggera- 
tion the  same  processes  which  take  place  in  the 
normal."  You  must  rid  yourself  of  the  idea  that 
any  sharp  dividing  line  exists  between  the  men- 
tally sick  and  the  mentally  well.  In  the  former 
the  sense  of  proportion  has  become  distorted,  but 
the  laws  by  which  thinking  goes  on  are  still  the 
same  laws  as  before. 

In  the  Atlantic  monthly15  W.  Parsons  in  an  ar- 
ticle on  war  neuroses  says : 

"War  neuroses  are  rarely  found  among  the 
wounded,  although  the  slightly  wounded  occasion- 
ally develop  neurotic  symptoms,  and  sometimes 
even  the  severely  wounded,  but  only  when  con- 
valescence becomes  well  established  and  a  return 
to  duty  approaches.  Prisoners  of  war  never  have 
a  neurosis.  Being  wounded  or  taken  prisoner  ac- 
complishes the  same  purpose  as  a  neurosis,  there- 

"March,   1919. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          451 

fore  neurosis  is  unnecessary.  Even  the  thought 
of  an  active  participation  in  war  produces  a  neu- 
rosis in  highly  unstable  individuals,  and  there  are 
a  number  of  so-called  anticipation  types  develop- 
ing as  men  are  drafted,  as  the  sailing  time  ap- 
proaches, or  when  the  European  training  period 
draws  to  a  close.  These  cases  show  precisely  the 
same  symptoms  which  were  formerly  attributed 
to  shells. 

"A  number  of  patients  show  no  spectacular 
symptoms,  and  this  applies  largely  to  officers. 
They  have  an  anxiety  reaction.  Officers  doubt 
their  ability  and  worthiness  to  lead  and  have  the 
responsibility  of  men.  This  is  a  transference  of 
the  emotion  of  fear  for  themselves  to  the  possi- 
bility that  injury  may  come  to  others.  The  trans- 
ference of  an  emotion  from  the  real  to  a  false  ob- 
ject is  a  common  psychological  experience." 

The  experience  of  the  war  is  that  some  men  are 
helped  by  the  mere  opportunity  for  expression  of 
their  repressed  ideas.  For  example  Forsyth  finds 
that  the  depression,  listlessness,  loss  of  confidence, 
etc.,  "are  best  and  most  quickly  relieved  when  the 
patient  has  been  induced  to  talk  freely  of  what 
is  on  his  mind."  In  other  cases,  and  this  proves 
how  much  deeper  the  emotional  life  is  than  the 
mere  superficial  consciousness,  what  is  necessary 
for  cure  is  the  liberation  of  a  rightly  directed 
emotion.  "Mott  records  . . .  one  case  (of  mutism) 
while  watching  a  ball  game,  was  overturned  from 
his  wheeled  chair  by  a  runner.  The  sudden  emo- 


452          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

tional  shock  and  surprise  caused  him  to  exclaim 
aloud  and  he  recovered  his  speech.  Another  of 
eight  months  standing,  shouted  out  when  cap- 
sized into  the  water  from  a  boat."  Facts  like  this 
last  have  given  rise  to  the  "maniere  forte"  as  op- 
posed to  the  "maniere  douce"  or  treating  some 
neurotic  cases,  which  is  to  make  continuance  in 
the  neurosis  more  painful  than  return  to  the  bat- 
tle field — e.  g.,  by  tickling  the  throat  electrically 
to  cure  mutism  and  other  veiled  forms  of  mild 
torture. 

The  third  chapter  of  his  analytic  Psychology  of 
the  unconscious,  Jung  devotes  "the  significance 
of  the  fathers  in  the  destiny  of  the  individual," 
and  in  earlier  lessons  we've  discussed  the  progres- 
sion of  the  childish  libido  thru  various  successive 
steps.  Be  it  recognized  that  all  these  stages  are 
perfectly  normal  things  to  experience  in  their 
time  and  to  pass  through  and  outgrow,  but  if 
the  individual  remains  in  any  one  of  them  and 
does  not  graduate  to  the  normal  adult  attitude  in 
which  the  sexual  element  of  the  libido  fixates  upon 
a  man  or  woman,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  in 
which  the  whole  attention  directs  itself  to  over- 
coming the  practical  obstacles  of  life — if  the  in- 
dividual remains  thus  backward  or  having  passed 
on  terns  again  back  to  his  childhood  condition, 
he  is  abnormal  or  regressive.  Apropos  of  this  we 
recall  a  passage  in  Terhune  on  the  relapse  of  sol- 
diers under  stress  of  danger  to  infantile  stammer- 
ing, As  indicated  by  another  writer,  to  whom  we. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          453 

cannot  at  this  moment  refer,  moments  of  extreme 
danger  tend  to  revive  the  childhood  cry  for  the 
protection  of  our  mothers ;  fear  makes  us  long  to 
be  back  in  the  period  when  we  could  run  to  some- 
one who'd  take  care  of  us.  Always  fear  is  an 
unmanning  influence,  an  influence  that  outward- 
ly may  seem  to  help,  but  which  builds  upon  foun- 
dations which  are  unsolid  and  some  day  will  have 
to  be  torn  down  and  all  reconstructed.  It's  an 
anti-social  force,  whether  in  its  more  crude  bru- 
tal manifestations,  or  whether  manifested  in  the 
refined  form  of  social  disesteem. 

Suppose  we  now  treat  in  alphabetical  order 
some  of  the  more  important  terms  and  concepts, 
explaining  them  to  you. 

Conscious,  Unconscious  and  Fore-conscious  are 
terms  employed  to  distinguish  respectively  those 
ideas  which  we  retain  and  reckon  with  without 
embarrassment,  those  ideas  which  are  driven  out 
of  sight  by  reason  of  strong  emotional  concom- 
mittants  so  that  we  can't  summon  them  nor  even 
entertain  them  when  we  strive  to  do  so,  and  last- 
ly those  ideas  which  momentarily  are  in  the  back- 
ground but,  like  the  multiplication  table,  are  re- 
callable at  pleasure. 

Determination  of  the  content  of  a  dream  is  the 
selection  for  it  of  such  manifest  elements  as  will 
symbolize  the  dreamers  unconscious  complex.  The 
over-determination  of  the  dream  is  such  selection 
to  symbolize  simultaneously  more  than  one  such 
complex. 


454          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Dream-making  and  Distortion  are  respectively 
the  arrangement  of  the  elements  in  such  a  way  as 
to  form  some  sort  of  connected  story,  and  the  dis- 
guising of  the  latent  meaning  so  it  will  pass  the 
"censorship"  of  the  conscious. 

Erogenous  zones  are  all  those  parts  of  the  body 
which  have  come  to  awaken  sexual  feeling  when 
touched.  In  the  child  the  anal  and  oral  passages 
are  such  zones  (hence  the  peculiar  pleasure  of 
children  at  stool  or  in  sucking  objects). 

Exhibitionism  and  Peeping  Tendency  are  re- 
spectively the  passive  and  active  phases  which 
succeed  to  masocism  and  sadism.  In  young  chil- 
dren you  will  note  the  tendency  to  exhibit  them- 
selves on  all  possible  occasions  and  also  to  mani- 
fest a  curiosity  of  intense  degree  which  leads 
them  to  looking  thru  keyholes. 

Fetichism  is  employed  in  a  psycho-analytic 
sense  to  mean  the  treatment  of  any  object  such 
as  a  lock  of  hair,  a  slipper,  etc.,  of  the  beloved 
person,  as  though  it  were  in  essence  that  person 
himself. 

Free  Association  is  a  method  of  exploring  the 
unconscious  which  consists  in  asking  a  person  to 
name  the  word  or  to  describe  the  scene  or  memory 
which  first  comes  to  his  mind  when  you  give  him 
some  key-word.  For  instance  in  analyzing  a  per- 
son's dream  about  a  black  cat,  you  would  prob- 
ably ask  for  his  association  in  connection  with 
the  word  cat,  when  he  might  recall  that  he  had 
called  an  acquaintance  a  cat  on  a  certain  occasion. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          455 

This  might  give  you  a  clue  by  means  of  which 
you  could  determine  the  real  significance  of  the 
dream  in  question. 

Infantile  Sexuality  is  the  theory  of  Freud  that 
sexuality  does  not  as  was  formerly  considered 
to  be  the  case  develop  from  puberty  onward. 
Freud  holds  that  even  the  young  child  has  its  ap- 
propriate sexual  desire  all  be  it  of  a  different  type 
from  that  of  the  adult.  At  this  age  the  indi- 
vidual is  normally  homo-sexual  and  fixates  his 
affections  upon  the  members  of  his  immediate 
household — although  indeed  the  members  of  the 
opposite  sex,  for  instance  the  mother  in  the  case 
of  her  son,  comes  in  for  a  greater  degree  of  affec- 
tion usually  than  members  of  the  same  sex. 

Infantilism  is  the  dependent  and  irresponsible 
attitude,  which  is  proper  to  a  child,  but  which 
normally  should  be  outgrown  and  give  way  to  the 
interests  and  responsibilities  of  adulthood.  In 
neurotic  cases,  however,  we  commonly  find  that 
the  grown  up  individual  still  clings  to  his  child- 
hood loves,  lives  on  in  a  kind  of  dream  world  and 
refuses  to  meet  the  facts  of  reality  as  they  are. 

Introversion  and  Extraversion  we  have  already 
discussed.  Besides  the  introvert  and  extravert 
types  Miss  Moltzer  postulates  a  third  type  com- 
pounded of  the  two  which  she  calls  the  intuitive 
type.  The  intuitive,  according  to  this  analyst,  is 
the  kind  person  whose  conscious  and  unconscious 
parts  of  the  mind  never  get  greatly  out  of  touch 
with  one  another. 


456          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Inversion  and  Perversion  are  both  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other  and  from  Introver- 
sion. The  invert  is  the  person  whose  sexual  satis- 
faction is  found  entirely  within  himself.  The  per- 
vert represents  the  individual  whose  desires  are 
completely  turned  about,  so  that  their  object  is 
not  the  opposite  sex  but  individuals  of  like  sex 
with  himself. 

Libido  is  the  term  employed  to  denote  the  sum 
of  the  individual  desire.  In  the  infant,  his  libido 
is  almost  wholly  interested  in  the  nutritive  func- 
tion. Only  gradually  is  his  passion  for  eating 
turned  partly  into  other  channels. 

Manifest  and  latent  content  of  dreams  must  be 
distinguished  from  each  other.  The  manifest 
content  is  that  which  is  evident  on  the  surface — 
that  is,  in  the  dream  about  the  black  cat,  the 
actual  performances  of  said  cat,  would  be  the 
manifest  content,  and  these  might  very  well  be 
taken  from  actual  scenes  witnessed  by  the 
dreamer  on  the  day  before.  The  latent  content, 
however,  is  always  obscured,  and  is  made  up  of 
request  material.  For  example,  an  elment  of  the 
latent  content,  would  perhaps  be  the  person  to 
whom  the  dreamer  had  on  some  previous  occa- 
sion referred  as  "an  old  cat." 

Neurotic  Anxiety,  as  shown  through  the 
anxiety  dream  (like  a  dream  of  a  burglar  enter- 
ing the  house  and  frightening  the  dreamer), 
nearly  always  hides  unconscious  desire  for  sexual 
assault. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          457 

Nuclear-Complexes  are  those  essential  groups 
of  ideas  rigidly  excluded  from  consciousness 
around  which  a  great  number  of  associated  ideas 
become  clustered.  The  object  of  the  analysis  is 
to  get  at  these  nuclear-complexes ;  but,  before  re- 
solving them,  it  is  necessary  to  get  rid  of  a  vast 
amount  of  protecting  material. 

Oedipus  and  Electra  Complexes  derive  their 
name  as  we  have  already  said  from  the  great 
myths  of  Oedipus  and  Electra,  of  whom  Oedipus 
killed  his  father  and  married  his  mother,  while 
Electra  ridded  herself  of  her  mother,  in  order  to 
be  united  with  her  father.  These  myths  as  we 
have  already  said  are  presumed  to  embody  infan- 
tile tendencies  which  are  in  some  degree  present 
at  some  time  in  all  persons. 

Pleasure  of  gratifications  needs  no  explanation. 
Freud  distinguishes  the  end-pleasure  from  the 
anticipatory  fore-pleasure. 

Prophylaxis  and  Therapy  are  used  with  regard 
to  the  mind  and  emotions  in  the  same  sense  as 
with  regard  to  the  physical  body  and  its  microbic 
enemies. 

Psycho  Analytic  Technique  is  the  art  of  probing 
the  unconscious.  Its  chief  weapon  is  the  analysis 
of  dreams. 

Psycho-sexual  constitution  is  the  make-up  of 
the  individual  as  regarded  by  Freud  and  his  fol- 
lowers who  place  emphasis  upon  the  errotic  mo- 
tive as  the  most  impelling  one  in  life  and  as  the 
cause  of  practically  all  hysterias. 


458          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Saddism  and  Masochism  are  respectively  the 
disposition  to  derive  gratification  through  the 
maltreatment  of  another  creature,  especially  a 
person  of  opposite  sex,  or  on  the  other  hand  of 
being  injured  or  beaten  by  such  a  person. 

Secondary  Elaboration  is  the  process  whereby 
when  certain  symbols  which  represent  and  yet 
sufficiently  disguise  an  unconscious  desire,  have 
been  slipped  past  the  censor  that  stands  at  the 
gate  of  the  conscious  mind,  these  materials  are 
then  woven  into  some  form  of  story,  so  that  they 
appear  to  have  some  degree  of  sequence. 

Somatic  is  a  term  referring  to  the  body  as  op- 
posed to  the  psysic  (emotional  and  intellectual). 

Symbolism  for  analysis  is  the  representation  of 
repressed  ideas  by  means  of  other  ideas  which 
have  something  in  common  with  them  but  which 
are  in  themselves  sufficiently  innocent-seeming, 
so  that  they  themselves  are  not  repressed. 

Wish-fulfillment  is  a  function  sometime  sub- 
served by  the  dream.  For  example,  the  alarm 
clock  rings  and  it  is  time  to  get  up,  whereupon 
the  sleeper  simply  dreams  that  he  has  actually 
got  out  of  bed  and  is  dressing.  And  so  in  reality, 
he  is  able  to  go  on  sleeping. 

We  saw  that  an  entire  school  of  thinkers  have 
been  so  impressed  by  the  nature  of  man  as  an 
economic  animal,  and  another  school  we  saw  had 
been  so  impressed  by  his  nature  as  a  sexual  ani- 
mal, that  they  account  for  all  his  acts  on  the 
basis  of  the  first  or  the  second  of  these  respective 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          459 

traits  alone.  So  we  find  certain  writers  speaking 
of  man  as  essentially  motived  by  fear  of  enemies 
and  of  distruction. 

This  isn't  quite,  but  is  a  fair  approximation  to 
the  view  expressed  by  LeDantec  in  "L'  Egoism, 
Seule  Base  de  Toute  Societe,"*  (reviewed  by  Mr. 
G.  Allport)  in  which  he  defines  "egoism"  as  the 
"instinct  to  self  preservation." 

LeDantec  is  characterized  by  scientific  manner 
combined  with  lack  of  precision  in  statement 
which  is  dangerous.  For  instance  he  gives  as 
an  analogy  of  selfishness  that  every  cell  in  the 
body — e.  g.,  a  phagycite,  or  white  blood  corpuscle 
lives  on  its  own  account.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  of 
course,  they  can  do  nothing  of  the  sort,  unless  we 
suppose  them  to  be  intellectual.  Because  a  peb- 
ble may  not  exist  "for"  me  to  throw  it,  is  no  proof 
it  does  exist  "for"  itself. 

Egoism  is  his  name  for  a  vague  "instinct  to  self- 
preservation."  That  all  which  seems  altruism  is 
a  deformation  of  egoism  due  to  life  in  society,  is 
the  sweeping  conclusion  he  draws  from  the  surer 
premise  that  the  social  varnish  is  superficially 
laid  over  a  primitive  cave  man  (whose  nature  he 
assumes  to  know) .  That  "Christian"  wars  show 
us  to  be  no  nearer  the  "unnatural"  ideals  of  Jesus 
is  shown  by  the  indulgence  of  Christians  in  wars 
even  for  religion. 

His  keenest  insight  is  where  he  shows  the  part 
played  by  a  common  enemy  (or  factor  exciting 


•Fundamental   idea  also  of  a  book   on  strikes  published   in   1916. 


460          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

antagonistical  activity) ,  is  a  much  more  powerful 
force  in  integrating  a  group  than  even  the  in- 
creased economic  productivity  of  combined  effort. 
"To  be  at  all  is  to  struggle,"  and  "the  individual 
should  consider  himself  an  enemy  to  all  the  rest 
of  the  universe."  But  for  safety's  sake  the  con- 
quered are  friends. 

Ever  since  agriculture  succeeded  hunting,  the 
chief  enemies  of  men  have  been  other  men.  That 
"hungry  wolves  don't  eat  each  other"  is  untrue 
— all  pick  upon  a  disabled  member — and  the  col- 
lege man  of  today  is  as  much  a  wolf  as  ever,  and 
as  ready  to  disregard  the  rights  of  weaklings,  so 
that  our  society  is  a  "bloodless  war."  Indeed,  to 
get  on  well  with  a  person,  find  a  ground  of  com- 
mon hatred  (lots  of  truth  in  that! — P.  H).  Jeal- 
ousy is  everywhere,  associations  "for  that  com- 
mon good"  are  really  to  fight  a  common  evil,  and 
people  forget  ego  only — and  hardly — in  face  with 
a  common  foe. 

To  be  sure,  a  sex-attraction  exists.  But  the 
family  itself  was  the  first  unit  against  enemies, 
and  its  type  of  fraternity  is  the  prototype  of  all 
other.  Even  "mother-love  is  based  on  egoism. 
Here  the  father  from  old  custom  remains  a  chief, 
and  children  continue  the  habit  of  obedience ;  sen- 
timents are  a  blind  persistence  of  old-time  biologi- 
cal compulsion;  superstitions  much  the  same;  so 
also  'rights'  and  duties"  surviving  in  spite  of  hu- 
mane societies  and  legal  regulation  of  parental 
power. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          461 

Clannishness  is  frowned  upon  as  neighboring 
families  unite  for  mutual  protection,  and  the 
smaller  unit  became  no  longer  necessary.  Such 
prized  virtues  as  undying  gratitude  are  mythical. 
The  increase  of  populations  according  to  Malthus' 
law  beyond  what  the  countries  can  easily  support 
embitters  that  competition  for  a  living,  and 
France  is  to  be  congratulated  that  her  population 
is  decreasing  (quite  right — P.  H.)  At  present 
wars  can't  cease. 

As  against  Trotter's  concept  of  a  "herd  in- 
stinct" and  the  popular  metaphysical  rationaliza- 
tion of  altruism,  LeDantec  reduces  conscience 
to  a  basis  of  habits  based  on  custom  and  acquired 
tradition  which  are  generally  to  be  followed,  and 
to  break  which  is  unpleasant.  Martyrs  for  a 
cause  indicate  to  LeDantec  how  strong  such  hab- 
its may  become.  In  face  of  a  common  enemy  the 
individual  attenuates  his  egoistical  response  for 
the  purposes  of  social  organization,  and  after  the 
fight  is  over  this  deformation  is  perpetuated  thru 
hypocrisy  and  meta-physical  absolutes.  E.  g.,  a 
god  is  postulated  to  reward  merit,  and  the  failures 
of  faith  are  excused  by  saying  the  time  of  reward 
is  of  God's  own  choosing.  Law  is  the  codifica- 
tion of  a  hierarchy  of  principles  built  up  in  these 
ways,  and  both  religion  and  law  are  now  weak 
because  divorced. 

An  important  note  is  added  at  the  end — the 
resolution  of  motives  to  three  mainsprings:  (1) 


462          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Outgoing  acts,  (2)  withdrawing  acts,  (3)  two  or 
more  appetites. 

APPENDIX   TO   SECTION   I. 

We've  compiled  the  following  list  and  synopsis  of  the  148  cases 
cited  by  Jung  in  his  Analytical  Psychology,  Psychology  of  the  Un- 
conscious and  Theory  of  Psycho-Analysis. 

LIST  OF  CASES. 

Cited  in  Jung's  Analytical   Psychology. 

1.  Pp.   3  ff.   Disease:   Hysteria,   relatively  mild.      (Jung's  case). 
Patient:    Elsie    K.,    40    years,    single;    a    psychopathic    defective. 
Menstruation,    14-day    intervals.      Scratched   up   graves ;    saw   the 
dead  as  skeletons. 

Cause:    Nervous    exhaustion,    producing    hallucinations    under   al- 
coholic   stimulus. 

2.  P.    7.      Disease:    Hystero-epilepsy.      (Mentioned   by   Richer). 
Patient :   Married  woman   of  30.      Saw   her  children   carried   away 
and    wild    beasts    devouring    them. 

Symptoms :    Twilight    states,    with    terrible    hallucinations ;    am- 
nesia for  content  of  individual  attacks. 

3.  P.    7.      Disease:    Semi-hysteria.    (Mentioned    by    Richer). 
Patient:    Girl,    17   years.      Saw   her   dead   mother  coming   to  claim 
her. 

Symptoms :   Amnesia  for   content  of   attacks. 

4.  P.    8.      Disease:    Somnambulism   with    recurrent   amnesia.    (Naef). 
Patient:  Man  of  32  years.     Family  history  showed  degeneration. 
Symptoms :    Suddenly   travelled   from   Australia   to    Zurich.      Am- 
nesia for  entire  trip  to  and  from,   and  sojourn   in  Australia. 

5.  P.  9.    Disease:  Periodic  amnesia,  several  weeks  at  a  time    (Azam). 
Patient:    Albert    X.,    12Mj    years;    of    hysterical    disposition. 
Symptoms :     Forgot  everything,  even  his  own  language.     Normal 
in    intervals. 

6.  P.    9.      Disease :    Hystero-epilepsy    and    ambulatory    automatism. 
(Proust). 

Patient:    Educated    man,    30    years.      Very    suggestible. 
Symptoms :  Repeated  attacks  from  2  days  to  several  weeks  long ; 
wanders  about  irresponsibly. 

7.  P.  9.     Disease:  Ambulatory  automatism,   with  hysteria  and  som- 
nambulism,   and    total    amnesia.       (Boileau). 

Patient :     Widow    of    22  ;    traveled    about    38    miles    to    fetch    her 

child ;   awoke  after  3   days. 

Cause :    Threatened    operation    for    salpingitis. 

8.  Pp.    9    and    10.      Disease :    Ambulatory    automatism,    with    com- 
plete  amnesia.      (Wm.    James). 

Patient :     Rev.     Ansel     Bourne,     30    years.       Itinerant    preacher ; 
psychopathic.      Attacks   of   loss   of  consciousness. 
Symptoms :   Disappeared :   2   months   later  woke   in  distant  town, 
where  he  had  bought  and  managed  a  shon. 

9.  P.    10.      Disease:    Somnambulism    with    hallucinations.    (Mesnet). 
Patient:   F.   27  years.     Sergeant  in   African   regiment. 

Cause:  Wound  in  parietal  bone,  causing  hemiplegia  until  healed. 
10.     P.   10.      Disease:   Hysteria.      (Guinon  and   Sophie  Waltke). 

Patient:   Female,   in  hysterical  attack,  saw  elaborate  pictures   in 

colors. 

Cause:  Experiments  in  holding  colored  glass  before  patient's  eyes. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS         463 

11.  Pp.  10,  11.     Disease:  Amnesia  in  a  secondary  state  which  alter- 
nated with  normal  corsciousness  for     years.    (MacNish). 
Patient:     A  young  lady,  apparently  healthy. 

Cause:  An  abnormally  deep  and   long  sleep. 

12.  Pp.   12.  75.     Disease:  Somnambulic  dream-pictures,  seen  in  wak- 
ing  consciousness.      (Sse   No.    38). 

Patient:  Goethe;  related  in  "Zur  Naturwissenschaft  in  Allge- 
meinen." 

13.  i.  Disease:      Attempted  suicide.      (Bleuler). 

Patient:    An    educated    middle-aged    gentleman,    who    had    done 

over-strenuous    mental    work. 

Cause:   As  no  epileptic   antecedents,   nervous   exhaustion   simply. 

14.  Pp.    16   ff.   Disease:   Somnambulism,   with   hallucinations  and  au- 
tomatisms,   amounting   to   secondary   personality.      (Spiritualistic 
medium).      (Jung). 

Patient:   Miss   S.    W.,    15%    years.     Neuropathic   inheritance. 
Symptoms:  Attecks  occurred  at  frequent  intervals  for  more  than 
two  years ;  partial  amnesia. 

15.  y         l    so.  37,  44.  45,  69.  87-93.     Disease  ( ?)    (Justinus  Kerner). 
Patient:  Frau  Haffe,  "Die  Seherin  von  Prevorst " 

16.  Pp.    ii   and  «0.     Disepip.    Hysteria,  automatic  substitution  of  ad- 
jacent   association.      (Binet). 

Patients :  Man  whose  pricked  aneasthetic  hand  made  him  think 
"points ;"  woman  who  saw  mentally  the  word  her  aneasthetic 
hand  was  writing  unseen. 

17.  Pp.   54  ff.     Disease:   Automatic  writing.      (Myers). 

Patient:  Mr.  A.,  a  member  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
making  experiments  on  himself. 

18.  Pp.   55,   66,   75.     Disease:   Multiple  personality    (?).    (Janet). 
Patient :    "Lucie." 

Symt>toms:  The  method  of  creating  the  sub-conscious  personality 
"Adrienne." 

19.  Pp.    61-64,    69,    72,    84,    89,    90,    91.      Disease:    Hallucination    and 
automatism.      (Flournoy). 

Patient:     Helen   Smith. 

Symptoms    'Somnambulism   with   glossolalia. 

20.  P.   62.     Experiments : 

Patient:    Maury    experimenting   upon    himself. 

Symptoms :    Pictures   seen   hypogogically   became   the   subjects   of 

the  dreams  that  followed. 

21.  P.   62.     Experiments  to  the  same  effect  as  the  above. 
Patient:   G.   Trumbull   LaHd.   experimenting   on   himself. 

22.  Pp.    63,    84.      Disease:    Hallucinations.      (Jules    Quicherat). 
Patient:     Jeanne  d'Arc. 

Symotoms :  Hallucinations  appearing  in  accordance  with  pre- 
dominating presentations. 

23.  P".   37.   44    63      Disease:   Hallucinations.      (Hagen). 
Patient :    Swedenborg. 

Symptoms :  Hallucinations  appearing  in  accordance  with  pre- 
dominating presentations. 

24.  P.   63.     Disease:  Hallucinations.      (Goethe). 
Patient:    Be^venuto    Cellini. 

Symptoms :  Ibid. 

25.  P.    63.     Disease :    Hallucinations. 
P"t\"r-t:   An   unnamed  student. 
Symptoms :  Ibid. 

26.  Pp.  64,   65.   84.     Disease:   Character-change.      (S.   Weir-Mitchell). 
Patient:   Miss   Mary   Reynolds,    who   lived   in   Pa,   in    1811. 
Symptoms :    Long   sleep ;    complete   amnesia ;    character   and    dis- 
position  totally   changed.      Alternating   two  states    of   conscious- 


464 

ness  for  16  years ;  last  25  years  of  life  spent  in  the  secondary 
state  exclusively. 

27.  P.    65.     Disease:    Character-change:    (Schroeder   von   de   Kalk). 
Patient :   Young  woman,   15  years. 

Symptoms :  After  3  years  of  illness,  she  was  seized  with  peri- 
odic and  complete  amnesia.  Normal  state,  intelligent,  well- 
read  ;  abnormal  state,  silly,  childish. 

28.  P.    66.     Disease    Character-change.       (Hoefelt). 
Patient :   Girl,   submissive  and  modest. 

Symptoms :  Spontaneous  somnambulism,  and  change  to  imperti- 
nent, rude,  and  violent. 

29.  Pp.   66,   84.     Disease:   Character-change.      (Azam). 
Patient:   Felida,    14%   years.     Depressed   and   timid. 
Symptoms:   Amnesic  attacks,  with  secondary  state  gradually   be- 
coming   chief ;    new    disposition,    lively,    reckless.      Later,    an    ap- 
proximation  of  conduct  between   the  two  states. 

30.  P.    66.      Disease:    Hysteria,    with    amnesic    alternating    character. 
Patient:    Louis   V,   of  France. 

(Bourru   and    Burot,   and   others). 

Symptoms :   At  periodic   intervals   displays    the   worst  tendencies. 

Second,    agreeable,    sympathetic,    industrious,    and    obedient. 

31.  P.    66.      Disease:    Character-change.      (Rieger) 
Patient:   "A  case  parallel   to  Lindau's   criminal   lawyer." 

32.  P.   66.     Disease:   Character-change.      (Morton   Prince) 
Patient ;  Case  from  "an  Experimental  Study  of  Visions." 

33.  P.    67.      DLease:    Periodic    change    in    personality    without    am- 
nesic dissociation.      (Renaudin) 

Symptoms :    First    stage,    rude,    greedy,    thievish,     inconsiderate. 
Patient :     A  young  man  of  excellent  character. 
Body  aneasthetic  during  bad  intervals. 

34.  P.   69.     Disease :    Double   consciousness.      (Janet) 
Patient:   Leonie  I  and   Leonie  II. 

Symptoms :  A  naturalness  in  contrast  with  "Ivenes,"  S.  W.'s 
second  personality. 

35.  Pp.  70,  71.     Disease:  Hysterical   dreaming.      (Pick) 

Patient:   Woman.     Thinks  herself  the  Empress  Elizabeth.    (Same 

Case?) 

Symptoms :  Acted  out  the  idea  of  attempted  rape  upon  herself. 

36.  P.  70.     Disease:  Pathological  dreaming.      (Bohn) 
Patient:  Woman. 

Symptoms :  Dreamt  herself  into  a  marriage  engagement  with  a 
totally  imaginary  lawyer,  and  corresponded  with  him,  disguising 
her  handwriting. 

37.  P.   71.     Disease:  Hysterical   identification.      (Erler) 
Patient :  Woman,   acutely  hysterical. 

Symptoms :  Thought  herself  one  of  several  little  paper  riders 
whom  she  saw  hypnogogically. 

38.  P.   75.     Disease :  Hypnotic  somnambulism. 

Patient:  Bettina  Brentano,  who  suddenly  fell  asleep  upon  Goethe's 

knee,  the  first  time  she  met  him. 

Cause :   Psychic  stimulation  bringing  about  the  hypnotic   state. 

39.  P.  75.     Disease :   Susceptibility  to  somnambulic  states. 
Patient:    A   sensitive   lady   about  to  have   a   splinter   cut  out  of 
her  finger. 

Symptom :  Pleasurable  hallucination  of  plucking  flowers,  the 
state  disappearing  spontaneously  when  the  operation  was  over. 

40.  P.   76.     Disease:    Spontaneous  hypnosis.     (Bonamaison) 
Patient :    Remarkable    case,    "in    which    not    only    was    the    sense 

.of  touch  retained,  but  the  senses  of  hearing  and  smell  were 
quickened." 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          465 

41.  P.   76.      Disease:   Hysterical   lethargy.      (Loewenfeld) 
Patients :    "D." 

Symptoms :  A  fleeting  recollection  of  the  lethargic  interval,  in- 
stead of  the  usual  total  amnesia. 

42.  P.   76.      Disease:   Hysterical   lethargy.      (Loewenfeld) 
Patient:   "St." 

Symptoms :  Lethargy  was  turned  into  hypnosis  by  mesmeric 
passes,  and  thus  combined  with  the  rest  of  consciousness  during 
the  attack. 

43.  P.    81.      Disease:   Hystero-epilepsy.      (Janet) 

Patient:  Man  who  had  a  vision  of  a  conflagration  during  at- 
tacks, and  in  whom  an  attack  could  be  induced  by  the  sight  of 
a  lighted  match. 

Cause:  This  relatively  slight  amnesic  dissociation  shows  the 
d.ep  foundation  of  the  ego-complex. 

44.  P.    84.      Disease :    Somnambulism.      (Dyce) 
Patient :    ( ?)    during   age  of  puberty. 
Cause:  Puberty  as  inducing  somnambulism. 

45.  Pp.   87-89.     Disease:   Cryptomnesia.    (Frau  E.   Forster-Nietzsche) 
Patient :    Nietzsche. 

Symptoms :  Almost  verbal  reproduction  of  a  passage  from  Ker- 
ner's  "Blatter  aus  Prevorst,"  in  "Thus  Spake  Zarathustra." 

46.  P.   89.     Disease:   Glossolalia. 

Patient:   Judge  Edmond's   daughter  Laura. 

47.  P.   89.     Disease:   Glossolalia.      (Bresler) 

Patient:    Probably   identical   with    Blumhardt's   Gottlieben   Dittus. 

48.  P.    96.     Circumstarc0 :    Use   of   Association    method. 
Test-person :   A  hysterical   woman. 

Result:   Her   reactions   showed   the   two  typically   hysterical   ten- 
d°ncKS ;    long    reaction    time ;    explanatory    woris    rather    than 
simple   reactions    (J»net's   sentiment   d'incompletude,    Freud's    re- 
.     inforced   object-libido). 

49.  P.  103.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 
Test-person :    A    hysteric. 

Result:  Many  failures  to  react  at  all. 

50.  P.   106.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 

Test-person :    A   man    of   small    stature,    younger   than   his   three 

tall  brothers ;  had  a  psychosis. 

Result:     The  word  short  came  frequently  and  without  meaning. 

51.  Pp.    106-118.     Circumstance:    Suspicion   of  theft  of   money. 
Test-person :    "A,"    a   woman    friend    of    Read    nurse :    had    been 
present  at  probable  time  of  theft;  later  confessed  to  it. 
Result:    Association    experiment   pointed    in    every    detail   to   her 
guilt. 

52.  Pp.    106-113.     Circumstance:   Ibid. 

Test-person :     "B,"  the  head  nurse  of  the  hospital. 
Result:    In    spite   of  suspicious    outward    appearances,    every    re- 
action to  the  test  indicated  innocence. 

53.  Pp.   106-113.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 

Test-person :    "C,"    the   nurse    who   had    charge   of   cleaning    the 

room. 

Result:    Outwardly  calm,  every  reaction  indicated  innocence,  and 

even   ignorarce  till  near  the  end  of  the  test 

54.  P.  114.     Circumstance:  Reaction  to  test  given  by  older  intelligent 
woman   student. 

Test^person :  A  young  student,  who  thought  the  test  an  exam- 
ination in  intelligence. 

Result:  He  reacted  with  definitions,  seeking  the  significance  of 
the  stimulus  words ;  results  similar  to  those  of  an  idiot. 


466          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

55.  Pp.    118-119.      Disease:    Episodic    excitement,    with    violent   jeal- 
ousy of  husband. 

Patient:  An  educated  woman  of  30  years,   married  3  years. 
Cause:    Reactions   to   association   test   showed    jealousy   was   pro- 
jection  of  her  own   sexual  wishes,   as   she  was   faithless   in   her 
fancies. 

56.  Pp.   121,   122,   125,    158,   159.     Circumstance:     Association  method 
applied   according   to    15    separate   standards. 

Test-t>erson :  A  middle-aged  man,  husband  of  No.  57,  father  of 
No.  58  ;  a  drunkard  and  quite  demoralized. 

57.  Pp.   121,   122,   125,   126,   158,   159.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 
Test-person :  A  woman  of  46  years,  wife  of  No.  56,  and  mother 
of  No.   58. 

Result:  A  pure  predicate  type,  with  marked  subjective  tendency. 

58.  Pp.   121,   122,  125,  126,  158,   159.     Circumstance:     Ibid. 
Test-person :  Girl  of  16  years,  the  daughter  of  Nos.  56  and  57. 
Result :  A  pure  predicate  type,  with  marked  subjective  tendency ; 
almost  complete  agreement  with  mother. 

59;     Pp.    122,   123.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 
Test-person :  The  husband  of  No.  60. 

Result :  Predicate  objective  type ;  almost  complete  agreement 
with  wife. 

60.  Pp.   122,   123.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 
Test-person :  Wife  of  No.  59. 

Result :  Predicate  objective  type ;  almost  complete  agreement 
with  husband,  though  with  some  few  more  subjective  tendencies. 

61.  P.    123.     Circumstance:   Ibid. 
Test-person :  The  father  of  Nos.  62  and  63. 

Result :  Predicate  objective  type ;  quite  close  agreement  with 
daughters. 

62.  P.    123.     Circumstance:   Ibid. 

T»st  •n-rs'-m  :  First  r'j'Ufirhtrr  of  No.   61. 

Result:  Predicate  objective  type  somewhat  more  pronounced  than 

eiJier  father  or  sister,  but  in  quite  close  agreement  with  them. 

63.  P.  123.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 
Test-person :    Second    daughter   of   No.    61. 

Result:  Predicate  objective  type,  somewhat  less  pronounced  than 
sister,  and  a  trifle  more  than  father. 

64.  P.   123.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 

Test-person :  A  woman,  single,  living  with  her  sister,  who  is 
No.  65. 

Result:  Fairly  predicate-objective  type,  excelling  in  some  re- 
spects her  married  sister  and  falling  below  in  others. 

65.  P.   123.     Circumstances:  Ibid. 

Test-person :  A  woman,  married,  living  with  her  sister,  No.  64. 
Result:  Fairly  predicate-objective  type,  quite  harmonious  with 
the  sister  who  is  single. 

66.  Pp.  123,  124.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 

Test-person :   A  man,  the  husband  of  No.  67,  and  brother-in-law 

of  Nos.   64   and   65. 

Result:   A  fairly  subjective  and  emotional   type. 

67.  Pp.    123,    124.      Circumstance:   Ibid. 

Test-person :   Wife  of  No.  66,  and  sister  of  Nos.   64  and  65. 
Result:   Rapid  falling   away  from   objective  type  of  sisters,   and 
almost  complete  agreement  with  husband's  type. 

68.  Pp.    124,    125.      Circumstance:    Ibid. 
Test-person :    Mother   of  No.    69. 

Result:  Mother  and  daughter,  living  together,  show  complete 
agreement  both  in  thought  and  form  of  expression. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          467 

69.     Pp.   124,   125.     Circumstance:  Ibid. 
Test-person:  Daughter  of  No.  68. 

Result:  Complete  agreement  with  mother;  L  e.,  utterly  subject 
to  milieu. 

Patient:  A  youth  who  ran  away  from  parents,  yet  cherished 
a  box  of  childhood  treasures. 

Cause:  The  depressions  of  puberty,  resulting  from  effort  to  free 
himself  from  spell  of  family,  and  difficulty  in  forming  new 
adjustment. 

71.  Pp.   127,   128.     Disease:     A  neurosis. 

Patient:  An  intelligent  and  educated  young  woman,  who  thought 
her  eyes  influenced  men  disagreeably. 

Cause :  Repressed  erotic  wishes ;  a  certain  predilection  for  lov- 
ing mentally  abnormal  persons  — a  result  of  her  love  for  an 
older  brother  who  became  hopelessly  insane  at  14  years. 

72.  Pp.    129-131.     Disease:     Dementia   praecox. 

Patient:  A  lady  whose  husband  was  in  every  way  suitable  for  her. 
Cause :  The  favorite  daughter  of  her  father,  she  continually 
compared  with  him  her  husband  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  lat- 
ter; the  infantile  constellation. 

73.  Pp.    132-5,    149,    150,    170.      Circumstance:    Study    of    the    psy- 
chology of  the  child.      (Freud) 

Case:    Little  Hans,   a   5-year-old   boy. 

R  suit:   A  knowledge  of  a  child's  mental  processes,  especially  in 

relation   to  the  discoveries   concerning  sex. 

74.  Pp.    135-154.     Circumstance:  Ibid.      (Jung) 

Case:    Anna,   a    3  year-old   girl,   a   healthy,    lively   child    of   emo- 
tional temperament. 
Result:  Ibid. 

75.  P.   153.     Disease:  Excessive  masturbation. 
Patient:   A    4-year-old   girl. 

Cause:  The  child  slept  in  the  same  room  with  parents. 

76.  PD.   160-2.     Disease:     A  climacteric  neurosis. 

Patient:  A  well-preserved  woman  of  55,  a  favorite  daughter, 
twice  married. 

Cause :  The  parental  constellation ;  The  dominance  of  her  father 
throughout  her  life. 

77.  Pp.    162-165.      Dis  ase:    Nervousness    with    suicidal    tendency. 
Patient:     Man    of   34   years,    of   small    build,    youngent   of   three 
brothers  ;  married  to  his  brother's   widow ;  in  love  with  a  young 
girl. 

Cause :  The  familial  constellation ;  the  relation  to  the  father 
strongest,  with  masochistic  homosexual  coloring. 

78.  Pp.     165-170.      Disease:      Nervousness    and    anxiety,    because    of 
religious   fears   after   father's   sudden   death. 

Patient:  A  peasant  woman  of  36  years,  a/erage  intelligence, 
healthy,  the  mother  of  3  children. 

Cause:  Father's  favorite;  married  against  his  wbhes,  refusing 
an  idiot  servant,  whom  her  father  wished  her  to  marry.  Her 
husband  a  good  man:  her  father  a  drunkard  and  swearer;  great 
anxiety  over  her  father's  soul. 

79.  Pp.    170-172.      Disease:      Enuresis. 

Patient:  Bey  of  8  years,  intelligent,  afraid  of  his  father,  lov- 
ing his  over-indulgent  mother. 

Cause :  In  a  position  of  too  much  dependence  on  parents  ;  Jeal- 
ous of  his  father,  yet  homosexual  toward  him. 

80.  P*»     174-175.      Reference   to    the    love    episode    in    the    Book    of 
Tobias. 

Case:     Sarah,    daughter   of    Raguel,    had    7    successive    husband* 


468          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

who  all   died  on   the  wedding   night ;   her  8th,   Tobias,   lived   tho 

Raguel    had    dug    his    son-in-law's    grave    beforehand. 

Cause :     A   mythological   account  of  the   father   constellation. 

81.  P.    174.     Disease:     Hysteria. 

Patient:     A   woman   who   had  three  husbands. 
Cause:     Husbands  were  all  chosen  under  the  infantile  constella- 
tion. 

82.  Pp.   176-190.     Disease:     A  phantasy  of  puberty. 

Patient:  Marie  X.,  a  13-year-old  school  girl,  expelled  for  start- 
ing an  ugly  rumour  about  her  teacher. 

Cause:  A  dream  of  Marie's,  of  wish-fulfillment,  which  dream, 
when  retold,  became  a  rumour  because  it  voiced  the  sexual 
complex  of  the  girls  of  the  school. 

88.    Pp.    191-196.      Circumstance :     Three   dreams    each    containing    a 
number. 

Patient:  A  middle-aged  man,  having  an  extra-conjugal  love 
affair. 

Causes :  The  first  and  second  numbers  showed  a  tendency  to 
count  up  the  cost  of  the  love  affair ;  the  third,  envy  of  his  doc- 
tor because  the  latter  had  one  child  more  than  he. 

84.  Pp.    196-199.      Circumstance:      A    dream    consisting    only    of    a 
name  and  number. 

Patient:     The  wife  of  No.   83. 

Cause:  The  repressed  wish  that  her  husband,  impotent  as  re- 
gards herself,  might  die,  and  she  marry  again  and  have  another 
child. 

85.  Pp.  209-211.     Disease:     A  neurosis. 

Patient :     A  man  about  40,   with   wife  and   children ;  has  an   in- 
tense   resistance   toward    his    professional    work. 
Cause :     Difficulties  with  wife,  a  childish  egoism,  etc. 

86.  Pp.    209,   210.      Disease:     A   neurosis. 

Patient:      A   woman   of   40,    mother   of   4    children;    after   death 
e    h'd   s    fi  th :   neurosis   better;    now   wants    another;    can 
find  no  other  interest  sufficient  to  make  her  well. 

87.  Pp.  217,  218.     Circumstance:     Dream  of  fire  in  hotel,  from  which 
patient  was   rescued  by  husband  and   father. 

Patient:     A  married  woman,  of  frivolous  mental  attitude. 
Result  of  analysis :     In  a  hotel   patient  had  a   questionable   love 
affair. 

88.  Pp.    219,    220.      Circumstance:      Dream    of    going    upstairs    with 
.     •     •  mother  and  sister. 

Patient :  A  young  man ;  neurotic ;  difficulty  in  choosing  pro- 
fession. 

Result  of  analysis:  Dream  symbols  have  more  than  one  mean- 
ing ;  here,  signified  patient's  neglected  biological  duties. 

89.  P.   239.     Disease :   Various   neurotic  troubles. 
Patient:     A  withered  peasant  woman  of  50  years. 

Result:  Her  reaction  to  hypnotism  aroused  the  suspicion  that 
there  was  a  sex  element  in  suggestion. 

90.  Pp.    239,   240.     Disease:     Enuresis   nocturna. 

Patient :  Girl  of  17  years ;  had  suffered  since  early  childhood. 
Result  of  hypnotic  treatment:  Success  of  cure  due  in  part  to 
an  evident  sex  element  in  the  method. 

91.  Pp.  240,  241.     Disease:     Pain  in  knee-joint  of  17  years  duration. 
Patient:     Woman   of  65   years. 

Result  of  hypnotic  treatment:  A  wonderfully  sudden  cure  which 
gave  good  evidence  of  the  purely  personal  nature  of  the  success. 

92.  P.  246.     Disease:     Enuresis  nocturna.     (Loy) 

Patient :  A  girl  of  15  years,  who  had  suffered  from  infancy. 
Result:  Rapid  cure  by  hypnotism. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          469 

93.  P.   246.      Disease:     The   washing   mania.      (Loy) 
Patient:     A  woman. 

Result:     Cure  thru   light  hypnotism  and  psychoanalysis. 

94.  P.   247.      Disease:     Masturbation.      (A   colleague   of   Ley's) 
Patient:      A   young    French    boy     whose   grandmother    interfered 
when   sexual  enlightenment  was  given. 

95.  P.     265.       Disease:       Extreme     erotic     transference     phantasies. 
(Jung) 

Patient:  A  very  intelligent  lady,  who  unconsciously  acted  on 
the  insight  gained  from  analysis,  and  dreamed  of  the  doctor 
and  herself  without  the  forms  of  transference. 

96.  PD.   303,   304,  305-311.     Circumstance:     Dream  of  surreptitiously 
plucking  an  apple  from  a  tree  in  a  strange  garden. 

Patient:     A  young  man. 

Result  of  association  method  applied  to  dream  material :  A  love 
affair  with  a  housemaid,  with  whom  he  had  a  rendezvous  the 
day  before. 

97.  Pn    319-322.     Disease:     Dementia  Praecox. 

Patient :  Cook,  woman  of  32  years ;  no  hereditary  taint.  Teeth 
extraction  caused  anxiety  attacks. 

Result  of  psychoanalysis :  She  had  had  an  illegitimate  child, 
knowledge  of  which  she  wished  to  keep  from  her  present  lover. 

98.  Pp.    322-328.      Disease:      Dementia    Praecox. 

Patient :  Man  of  30  to  40  years ;  a  foreign  archaelogist  of  great 
learning  and  unusual  intelligence. 

Result  of  T>sychoanp]ys;s :  All  delusions,  etc.,  are  explicable  by 
the  incidents  of  a  futile  love  affair  of  many  years  before. 

99.  Po.   327-328.     Circumstance :     The  psychosis  has  one  noteworthy 
picture  in  1'terature,  "Impgo." 

Author:     The  artist  Spitteler. 

Cause:     "The  er+i~t  knows  PS  a  rule  better  than  the  psychiatrist." 

100.  Pp.  328,   329.     Disease:     Dementia  Praecox. 

Patient:     Man   five  years   in  bed  without  uttering  a  word.     No 

explanation   given. 

Cause:     Time  makes  no  difference  to  the  patient. 

101.  P.  329.     Disease :     Dementia  Praecox. 

P»t*ent:  Man  silent  for  y~»rs,  "to  snare  the  German  language." 
Cause:  To  patients,  nothing  peculiar  in  experiences. 

102.  Pp.   329-330.     Disease:      Dementia    Praecox. 

Patient:     Woman  for  35  years  ill  in  bed:  back  bent,  head  bowed, 

knees    somewhat    drawn    up,    and    hand    held    as    in    position    of 

sewing. 

Analysis:     A  love  affair  that  had   come  to   nothing.     The   man 

was  a  shoemaker. 

103.  P.    330.     Disease:     Dementia   Praecox. 

Patient:     Man   with  mad  medley  of  delusions  and   words  except 

when  physically  seriously  ill. 

Conclusion :     Reason  survives  in  some  corner  of  the  mind. 

104.  Pp.  331-335.     Disease:     D°mentia   Praecox ;  "the  classic  example 
of  meaningless  delusional   ideas." 

Patient:  A  woman,  dressmaker;  fell  ill  at  39  y°ars :  sat  for 
20  years  mechanicelly  sewing,  apparently  an  imbecile  yet  utter- 
ing odd  words  which  proved  to  be  keys  to  rich  and  satisfying 
phantasies. 

105.  P.    335.      Circumstance:      The    character    of     'Hannele      in    the. 
drama  of  that  name. 

Author :      Hauptmann. 

Cause:     "Something  common  both   to  the  artist  and  the  insane 

and  to     ...     every  human  being." 


470          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

106.  Pp.   337-343.     Disease:      Paranoid   dementia.      (Freud) 

Patient :  P.  Schreber,  revealed  in  his  autobiography,  "Denk- 
wurdigkeiten  eines  Nervenkranken." 

Ann  lysis :  The  infantile  complex  ;  also  bizarre  concatenations 
of  ideas. 

107.  PT>.      338-343.     Circumstance:     The     interpretation     of     "Faust" 
causally. 

Patients :  The  symbol  Faust,  the  man  Goethe ;  the  human  being. 
Analysis :  The  causal  standpoint  leads  to  constructive  under- 
standing. 

108.  Pp.  358-361.     Disease:     Hysteria,  spastic  paralysis  of  right  arm, 
systematic   aphasia;   twilight   states.      (Breuer   &   Freud) 
Patient :     A  very   intelligent  young   woman :   the  psychic   injury, 
or  trauma,   occurred    while   nursing    her   dying   father. 

Cure:     Effected  by  psychoanalysis,   one   of  the  first  cases. 

109.  P.   358.     Disease:     Hysteria,   causing  loss  of  hearing. 

Patient:  A  lady,  who  still  sang.  The  doctor,  accompanying 
her,  changed  the  key,  and  she  sang  on  in  the  altered  key,  show- 
ing she  heard. 

CPUSC:  An  anatomical  impossibility  is  often  symptomatic  of 
hysteria, 

110.  Pp.    358,    359.      Disease:      Hysteria,    causing    comolete   blindness. 
Patient:      A    man,    who.    gradually    recovering    his    sight,    sees 
everything  but  people's  heads. 

C»use:  The  consciousness  only,  not  the  sense  function,  is 
affected. 

111.  Pp.  361-366.     Disease:     Hysteria,   following  a  sudden  fright. 
Patient:     A  young   lady,   who  is   in   love  with  her  friend's   hus- 
band and  not  with  the  man   she   is  engaged   to. 

Cause :  The  erotic  conflict,  and  not  the  trauma  resulting  from 
the  fright  of  runaway  horses  in  her  childhood. 

112.  Pp.    381-383.    392-394,    414.      Circumstance:      Conflict   of    soul,    as 
seen  in  the  life  ard  works  of  Nietzsche ;  wherein  he  differed  from 
Wagn-r:  the  "will  to  power." 

113.  Pp.  385-391,  406-408.  Disease:  A  neurosis;  terror,  nervous  asthma; 
choking. 

Patient:      A  young   married   woman,    h°r   father's    favorite,    who 
had  h»d    before  her  marriage,  a  flirtation  with  an  Italian. 
Analysis :     Cause  in   conflict  between  the  infantile-Totic   relation 
to  father  pnd  love  for  h°r  husband   (according  to  Freud). 
Cause  in  the  will  to  power  of  the  ego,  which  first  took  advantage 
of  parents'  estrangement,  then  asserted  the  ego  by  neurosis  when 
influence   over   husband    flogged    (according   to   Adler). 

114.  Pp.   399-401,   405,   415.     Disease:      Hypochondria. 

P»ts"nt:  A  retired  American  business  man,  of  45  years;  self- 
made. 

Csuse:  Active  creative  energy  turned  back  into  himself  with 
destructive  force.  A  hopeless  case. 

115.  Pp.    418-430,    434.    435.      Disease:      Infantile   comolex    directed   to- 
ward a  friend  ;  homosexual  tendency  :  trsnsfererce  to  doctor. 
Patient:      A    woman    artist    whose    "Heal    friendship"    with    an- 
other woman   artist  produced  a   neurosis   in   both. 

Analysis :     Succ°ss   in  restoring  the  individual  psyche. 

116.  Pp.    447,   448.      Disease:      Schizophrenia.      (Maeder) 

•          Patient :     A  man  who  called  the  world  his  picture-book  ;  a  lock- 
smith,   without    intellectual    gifts. 

Analysis :  His  idea  just  as  universal  in  character  as  Schopen- 
hauer's world,  but  has  stood  still  in  an  embryonic  stage  of 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          471 

growth,    while    Schopenhauer's    has    changed    to    an    abstraction 

universally   valid. 

Cases  cited  in  Jung's  "Psychology  of  the  Unconscious." 

117.  Pp.   37-41.     Disease:     Introversion   psychosis.      (Anatole   France) 
Patient:     Abbe  Oegger,  a  priest  much   given  to   phantasies;   re- 
ceived a  sign  to  prove  that  Judas  was  saved. 

Cause:  Unconscious  preparation  of  his  mind  for  hhwelf  play- 
ing the  part  of  Judes.  as  he  left  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
and  became  a  Swedenborgian. 

118.  PT>.    41-138     191.    ff.    thruout   book.      Subject:    Po°ms    and   auto- 
biographical material  from   "Quelque  faits  ^'imagination  crentice 
sub-onsciente."       Author:       Miss     Frank     Miller,     an     American 
woman. 

Disease:      Archaic    definition    overlays    real    meaning    of   modern 

word. 

Patient:     A   woman,   who  discf>v°r°d  the  mythologic    (Spielrein) 

m">»»ni"<r  of  alcohol  to  be  "an  effusion  of  seed ;"  had  a  symbolism 

of  boiling ;  used  water  and  earth  to  express  mother ;  and  deemed 

the  sun's   rays   solid. 

120.  v->     i*;7-l60.     D;se«se:     Dementia  praecox. 

Patient:      A   woman    marrifd    many   years,    and    taken    ill    after 
the  death   of  her   child ;   symptom,   a  peculiar  boring   movement 
on  her  left  temnje. 
Cause:      Pr°dominance   of  the   infantile. 

121.  P     162.      Disease:      A    catatonic   state. 

Patient:     A  ymi*>sr  girl,  just  engaged;  on  first  seeing  the  doctor, 

requested   something  to  eat. 

C»u<!'»:      P°<rressior>    t.o   th"   pr°sexual   stage. 

122.  P.  162.     Disease:     Dementia  praecox. 

Pfti°nt:      A    yiuni?    maidservant;    had    delusions    mixing    sexual 

pnd  rutirMve  element*. 

Cause:     Regression  to  the  presexual  stage. 

123.  P     18S.      Disease:      Imbecility    showing    in    incendiarism.       (Dr. 
Schmid) 

Patient:      A  peasant  youth. 

C"us-:     CiTPCti^d  with   masturbation. 

124.  P    203.     CircuT"sti>r>c'»:     A  dr*>°rn  th»t  th»  physician  speared  to 
the  wall  an   animal  half  pig,  half  crocodile. 

Patient:     A   neurotic   man   who  had   questionable   relations   with 

women. 

C»us-:      The    fear   that   the   physician    would    forbid   his    sexual 

adventures. 

125.  P.    206.       Circumstance:      Hynogo<?'c    vision    of    the    patient's 
mother    t>aint.ed    o«    a    By»,*"tine    ch»roh    w»H :    one    hnn-1    with 
g_r..,4  fingers,   which  were  large  and  had  knobs  at  the  end. 
Patient:     A  man. 

Ou  p-      T»,-,   h""d   h<H   a   php"'"c   m-nning. 

126.  *»->.  20<?.  ?07.     Circn^starc".     Phnntasy  of  a  "sVy-rocket,"  which 
then    becomes    a   golden    pheasant,   ascending   from   his    mother's 
h»r>d. 

Pntient:     Same  man   PS  No.   125. 

C»"i«ie'     Th»  <-»-n-cti«n  of  the  idea  of  fire  which  is  also  a  bird. 

with   the   T-hslHc   hand. 

127.  P.    210.     Circumstance:     Phantasy    that    defecation    is    like    the 
emotion  of  a  volcano. 

Patient:     A  man    who  h^d  this  phantasy  in  his  childhood. 
£-<,<»>•     "Th°  trrm-  'or  **"*  ^'"mental  occurrences  of  nature  are 
originally   not  at  all   poetical." 


472          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

128.  P.   211.     Circumstance:     Phantasy  that  the  patient's   father  was 
sitting  on  the  toilet  in  dignified  manner,  and  receiving  greetings 
from  people  who  passed. 

Patient:     A  woman   characterized  by  special   veneration   for  her 

father. 

Cause :      The    close    connection    of    the    idea   of    veneration    with 

the  anal   region. 

129.  P.  211.     Circumstance:     A  dream  of  the  representation   of   "the 
Crucified  on  the  bottom  of  a  blue-flowered   chamber  pot." 
Patient:      A   young   man   very   religiously   trained. 

Cause:  The  intimate  connection  of  the  faeces  and  gold, — the 
most  worthless  with  the  most  valuable,  i.  e.,  with  the  religious. 

130.  P.   212.      Circumstarce :     Child's   reply,   when   on   toilet,  that  she 
was   making    "A   little  wagon   and   two   ponies,"— things   she  es- 
pecially wished  for. 

Case:  "Anna,"  who  had  a  well-developed  anal  theory  of  birth. 
Cause :  The  child's  enormous  interest  in  derecation  and  its 
products,  seeing  that  thereby  something  is  produced. 

131.  P.   212.     Circumstance:     The  phantasy  of  childhood  that  from   a 
crevice  in  the  wall  of  the  toilet  a  fairy  would  come  and  bring 
everything  it  wished. 

Patient:     A  woman. 
Cause :     Ibid. 

132.  Po.    212-213.      Disease:      Insanity.      (Lombroso) 

Patient:      An   artist   who   considered   himself   God   and  the   ruler 
of  the  world,  making  it  come  forth  from  the  rectum. 
Cause :     The  great  valuation  placed  upon  the  excrement. 

133.  Pp.  212-213.     Disease:     Insanity.     (Lombroso) 

Patient :     An  artist  who  had  the  same  phantasy  as  No.   132,  and 
who  painted  a   picture  of   himself  with  the  world   coming  forth 
from  his  arms. 
Cause :     Ibid. 

134.  P.   213.     Disease:     Insanity. 

Patient:     An  educated  woman,  separated  from  husband  and  child 
under  tragic  circumstances  ;  smeared  herself  with  excrement  when 
the  doctor  had  established  a  hopeful  train  of  thot. 
Cause :     Now  known  to  be  an  infantile  ceremony  of  welcome,  or  a 
declaration  of  love. 

135.  PD.   248    249.     Disease:     Illness  resulting  from  typical  retention 
of  the  libido ;  dream  of  a  garden  containing  a  remarkable  exotic 
tree  with  flowers  and  fruit :  she  ate  and  found  herself  poisoned. 
Patient:     A  woman  many  y°ars  married,  who  had  recently  met  a 
young  man   very  pleasing  to  her. 

Cause:     The  tree  has  a   nhallic  significance. 

136.  P.  275.     Circumstance:     Dr°sm  that  th°  patient's  IMT  is  encircled 
by  a  large  red  worm,  for  whom  she  had  a  tender  interest. 
Patient:     A  girl  of  6  years,   who  goes  to  school  unwillingly. 
Cause :     The  motive  of  encircling  is  the  mother  symbolism. 
(For  case  mentioned  Pp.  275-276    see  No.  115.) 

137.  P.  362.     Circumstance:     Explanation  of  the  maternal  significance 
of  water  in  regard  to  the  mother  complex. 

Patient:  A  woman,  who  shuddered  at  the  explanation  and  thot 
of  a  jellyfish. 

Cause :  The  encircling  and  devouring  motive  in  the  jellyfish 
denotes  th°  re-absorption  in  the  mother  complex. 

138.  P.    363.      Circum°tance :     Dream    of   being   as   high   as    a   church 
steeple,  and  of  threatening  a  policeman. 

Patient:     A   girl   of   11   years. 

Cause:     A  wish  inversion;  the  policeman   is  the  father,   "whose 

gigantic  size  is  overcompensated   by  the  church  steeple." 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          473 

139.  P.   413.     Circumstance:     Dream  of  a  serpent  bite  in  the  region 
of  the  genitals. 

Pat.ent :  A  man  trying  to  free  himself  from  his  mother  complex. 
Cause:  The  conviction  that  he  was  inspired  and  poisoned  by 
his  mother  expressed  itself  by  the  contrary  phallic  symbol. 

140.  Pp.  413,  414.     Circumstance:     Dream  that  the  patient  was  filled 
.  with  a  great  snake,  whose  tail  could  be  seen  but  not  seized. 

Patient:     A   woman    in   a  relapse,   during   which  the  libido   was 

again   introverted. 

Cause:     The  snake  the  symbol  of  the  libido. 

141.  P.   414.     Disease:     A  very  strong  introversion    (catatonic  state). 
Patient:     A  woman  who  complained  that  a  snake  stuck   in  her 
throat. 

Cause :     Ibid. 

Cases  Cited  in  Jung's  "Theory  of  Psychoanalysis." 

142.  P.    10.     Disease :     Hysteria ;   hallucinations   of  smell. 
Patient:     Miss  Lucy  R.,  an  English  governess  in  Vienna. 
Result:     Cure  effected   by   psychoanalysis.      (Freud) 
Conclusion :      The    etiological    moment    not    found    in    traumatic 
scenes,   but  in  the   "insufficient   readiness  of  the   patient  to   set 
store  upon  the  convictions  passing  thru  her  mind."    (Jung) 
(For   case   discussed   Pp.    12-14,    46-49,   72-77,   see  case  No.   111.) 

143.  Pp.  25,  26,  28.     Disease:     Homosexuality. 

Patient:  A  young  man  who  conquered  the  homosexual  tendency, 
and  after  being  heterosexual  for  some  years,  became  homosexual 
again  because  of  a  woman's  refusal  to  marry  him. 

Cause:     A  reversion  of  the  libido. 

(For  case  mentioned  Pp.  35,  36 ;  also  "Psychology  of  the  Un- 
conscious," P.  152  ;  see  case  No.  106.) 

144.  P.  48.     Circumstance:     A  lively  fear  of  earthquakes. 
Cause:     The  shock  of  an  earthquake  long  recovered  from. 

145.  Pp.   84-89.      Disease :      An   ordinary   hysteria. 

Patient:     The  elder  of  two  sisters  but  a  year  apart  in  age. 
Cause:      Indecision    as    to    marriage,    while    her    sister    married 
without  any  emotional  obstacle ;  also,  she  was  the  favorite  daugh- 
ter,  and   had  apparently  an   incest  phantasy   toward  her  father. 

146.  Pp.   89,   90.     Disease:     Hysteria. 

Patient:  A  woman  whose  mother  had  written  of  her  in  early 
childhood,  that  she  was  always  good-tempered  and  enterprising. 
Conclusion :  Unusual  sensitiveness  in  children  is  discernible  in 
infancy. 

147.  Pp.  8y,  90.     Disease:     Catatonia. 

Patient:      Sister  of  No.    146.     Her  mother   had   written   of  her, 
when  she  was  2%  years  old,  that  she  was  always  in  difficulties 
with  both  people  and  things. 
Conclusion :     Ibid. 

148.  Pp.   112-133.     Disease:     A  neurosis  in  a  child.      (Jung  and  Miss 
Mary  Moltzer.)     Patient:     A  girl  of  11  years;  intelligent.     Sud- 
den  sickness    and   headache ;    reluctance   to    go   to   school ;    later, 
fever;    liking    for   a   teacher,    followed    by   estrangement;   a    boy 
friend. 

Cause:  Complicated  emotional  processes,  due  to  the  gradual 
approach  of  puberty. 


474          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

SECTION  2 

The  above  section  has  told  you  something  of  the 
pathological  aberrations  caused  when  instincts 
are  too  much  repressed.  It  is  time  we  enquired 
into  the  normal  nature  of  instincts. 

This  chapter  continues  our  skeleton  of  funda- 
mental principles  of  human  nature.  Human  na- 
ture is  what  we  have  to  deal  with  every  day  more 
than  with  anything  else.  It  is  more  important 
than  all  the  arts,  and  is  the  key  to  an  understand- 
ing of  history  and  politics;  perhaps  this  is  why 
nothing  ever  is  said  about  it  in  the  public  schools, 
for  a  general  knowledge  of  it  would  .explain  too 
many  of  our  cherished  delusions. 

For  most  of  our  institutions  not  only,  but  also 
our  habitual  manner  when  provoked,  is  based 
upon  a  tacit  assumption  that  human  conduct  is 
best  controlled  thru  the  single  motive  of  Fear. 

Never  has  much  intelligence  been  required,  to 
see  in  other's  fears,  emotions  easy  to  exploit  to 
our  own  advantage.  The  mother-cat  makes  use  of 
it  when  she  raises  her  bristles  so  as  to  look  for- 
midable to  her  enemy,  dog;  or  when  she  cuffs  a 
recalcitrant  kitten.  No  wonder,  then,  that  non- 
resistant  philosophers  like  Lao-tse,  Bhudda,  and 
Tolstoi  have  been  regarded  as  somewhat  other 
than  human.  And  yet  that  there's  at  least  far 
more  truth  than  error  in  their  position  is  being 
demonstrated  by  an  essentially  non-spiritualistic 
development  of  modern  science — psychoanalysis. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          475 

Let's  discuss  the  characteristics  of  this  flight 
instinct,  before  we  enquire  whether  other  primal 
or  evolved  urges  are  also  important  in  the  motiva- 
tion of  men. 

Turning  to  the  classics  of  modern  psychology, 
we  get  from  Wm.  James'  following  description:16 

"Fear  is  a  reaction  aroused  by  the  same  objects 

that  arouse  ferocity  ....  Fear stands  beside 

lust  and  anger,  as  one  of  the  three  most  exciting 
emotions  of  which  our  nature  is  susceptible.  The 
great  source  of  terror  to  infancy  is  solitude.  The 
teleology  of  this  is  obvious,  as  is  also  that  of  the 
infantile  expression  of  dismay — the  never  failing 
cry — on  waking  up  and  finding  himself  alone. 

"Black  things,  and  especially  dark  places,  holes, 
caverns,  etc.,  arouse  a  peculiarly  gruesome  fear 
....  says  Schneider: 

"'....  Children  who  have  been  carefully 
guarded  from  all  ghost-stories  are  nevertheless 
terrified  and  cry  if  led  into  a  dark  place,  especially 
if  sounds  are  made  there. . .  . 

"'....  The  fact  of  such  instinctive  fear  is  easily 
explicable  when  we  consider  that  our  savage  an- 
cestors thru  innumerable  generations  were  accus- 
tomed to  meet  with  dangerous  beasts  in  caverns, 
especially  bears,  and  were  for  the  most  part  at- 
tacked by  such  beasts  during  the  night  and  in  the 
woods  .  .  .  .' 

"Fear  of  the  supernatural  is  one  variety  of 
fear.  It  is  difficult  to  assign  any  normal  object 


"James.   Wm.— Principles  of   Psychology— pp.   415-420. 


476          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

for  this  fear,  unless  it  were  a  genuine  ghost.  But 
science  has  not  yet  adopted  ghosts ; ....  To  bring 
the  ghostly  terror  to  its  maximum,  many  usual 
elements  of  the  dreadful  must  combine,  such  as 
loneliness,  darkness,  inexplicable  sounds,  .... 
moving  figures  half  discerned  ....  and  a  ver- 
tiginus  baffling  of  the  expectation.  This  last  ele- 
ment, which  is  intellectual,  is  very  important.  It 
produces  a  strange  emotional  'curdle'  in  our  blood 
to  see  a  process  with  which  we  are  familiar  de- 
liberately taking  an  unwonted  course.  Professor 
W.  K.  Brooks  ....  told  me  of  his  large  and  noble 
dog  being  frightened  into  a  sort  of  epileptic  fit 
by  a  bone  being  drawn  across  the  floor  by  a  thread 
which  the  dog  did  not  see.  Darwin  and  Ro- 
manes have  given  similar  experiences.  The  idea 
of  the  supernatural  involves  that  the  natural 
should  be  set  at  naught.  .  .  But  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  cadaveric,  reptilian,  and  underground 
horrors  play  so  specific  and  constant  a  part  in 
many  nightmares  and  forms  of  delirium,  it  seems 
not  altogether  unwise  to  ask  whether  these  forms 
of  dreadful  circumstance  may  not  at  a  former 
period  have  been  more  normal  objects  of  the  en- 
vironment than  now." 


SECTION  3 

"The  object  of  education  is  to  make  men,  to 
produce  the  man  of  truth  and  honor,  to  give  men 
the  grace  of  the  gentleman,  which  cannot  mani- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          477 

fest  itself  save  in  good  manners,  modesty."17 
"Dare  to  be  true."18 

"To  thine  own  self  be  true;  and  it  must  follow,  as  the  night 

the  day 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man."19 

To  what  has  been  said  on  the  evils  of  lying, 
it  may  be  objected,  that  whatever  marks  us  as 
lacking  in  adroitness  and  self-control,  makes  rea- 
sonable the  surmise  that  we  also  will  turn  out  to  be 
peddlers  of  gossip,  unworthy  of  confidences.20  To 
be  accepted  as  a  confessor,  one  first  must  estab- 
lish his  reputation  for  discretion.  How  then  shall 
we  dare  to  become  entirely  frank? 

The  answer  is  that  we  can  be  truthful  and  yet 
maintain  a  certain  reserve.  But  our  sociability 
and  loquaciousness,  as  human  animals  are  indeed 
to  be  taken  into  account;  where  direct  statement 
of  our  views  is  imprudent,  another  outlet  should 
be  provided.  This  outlet  is  to  be  found  in  art. 
Thru  an  artistic  medium  we  can  express  in  sym- 
bolic fashion  the  deepest  passions.  It  would  be 
well  to  put  in  the  first  half  hour  of  every  morning 
at  some  artistic  effort. 

The  religions  of  the  world  which  have  endured 
have  built  upon  this  fact.  Long  after  a  man  has 
lost,  intellectual  contact  with  his  church,  he  may 
continue  to  be  lured  by  her  music,  her  vaulted 
aisles,  and  her  stately  pageantry.  Among  these 


17F.    Marion    Crawford. 

18G.   Herbert,  The  Temple   (The  Church   Porch). 
'"Shakespeare,    Hamlet,    Act.    2,    1. 

^The  author  learnt  this   by   bitter   experiences,    which   he   may    con- 
fide to  you  some  day  if  you  ask  him  delicately. 


478          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

he  knows  himself  to  be  inexplicably  more  com- 
fortable than  when  wrangling  with  his  hoarse- 
voiced  co-radicals  in  some  ugly  hall ;  yet  he  would 
vote  down  any  proposition  to  devote  even  a 
meager  sum  toward  making  this  hall  aesthetically 
more  attractive  to  himself  and  his  fellow  humans. 

The  Japanese  are  peculiarly  a  people  of  artistic 
discrimination.  On  visiting  Japan  at  the  time  of 
the  mikado's  coronation  our  party  were  fortu- 
nately enabled  to  see,  one  evening,  the  Cherry 
Dance.  This  isn't  usually  given  at  this  time  of 
year;  in  the  present  instance  real  cherry  blos- 
soms were  counterfeited  in  paper;  so  as  to  have 
their  sauce  to  celebrate  the  coronation.  We  were 
in  the  loges  and  had  real  chairs.  The  medium- 
priced  place  in  front  of  us  was  simply  a  sloping 
platform,  upon  which  people  merely  squatted,  and 
the  cheapest  places  were  squatting  room  upon  the 
main  floor  in  front. 

When  first  we  entered  the  house,  they  put  us 
thru  the  "tea  ceremonial."  Having  left  our  shoes 
without,  we  all  sat  around  the  sides  of  a  large 
room  and  ate  the  queer  cakes  and  drank  the  tea 
which  was  brewed  and  served  us  after  certain  so- 
cial formulae. 

The  whole  show  was  conducted  by  Geisha 
girls.  These  girls  are  professional  entertainers, 
something  after  the  pattern  of  members  of  Rus- 
sian ballet. 

When  the  curtain  rose,  a  troup  of  Geishas  were 
disclosed  sitting  in  a  row  upon  a  log.  They 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          479 

thrummed  their  instruments  with  a  precision  ex- 
tended to  the  point  of  having  them  all  move  their 
hands  in  exactly  the  same  way  at  the  same  time. 
All  costumes  were  the  most  gorgeous  we  ever  saw 
on  any  stage;  nothing  "faked"  but  all  materials 
genuine. 

Two  other  stages,  one  on  each  side  wall  of  the 
theatre,  were  afterward  revealed,  disclosing  other 
musical  troops.  Their  music  teachers  sat  behind 
them,  and  publicly  reproved  any  girl  who  made 
a  mistake. 

From  the  rear  troops  of  dancing  Geishas  en- 
tered, and  passed  via  the  side  stages  on  to  the 
main  one.  Each  act  ensuing  consisted  of  music 
and  ceremonial  dancing  expressive  of  some  phase 
of  the  rice  harvest.  We  couldn't  guess  the  inner 
meaning  of  many  of  their  moves,  yet  there 
seemed  to  be  a  subtle  pantomimic  element  in  this 
and  in  other  Japanese  dancing  we've  seen,  that 
makes  the  ballet  or  folk  dances  of  Europe  seem 
very  artless  by  comparison. 

A  curious  sight  in  Japanese  streets,  especially 
in  the  early  morning,  is  to  see  an  old  lady  stand- 
ing in  the  middle  of  the  sidewalk,  face  toward 
the  east  and  with  folded  hands,  mumble  her 
prayers.  She  is  worshipping  the  sun,  the  chief 
Shinto  deity.  And  yet  the  Japanese  aren't  what 
you'd  call  an  essentially  religious  people.  Their 
real  religion  is  Patriotism.  Shintoism  is  rather 
a  set  of  ceremonial  observances.  It  has  an  aes- 
thetic value.  Its  temples  and  shrines  are  very 


480 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 


lovely,  and  so  are  the  observances.  Why  (by  the 
way)  should  dancing  before  the  altar  be  absent 
from  all  western  forms  of  worship?  This  custom 
is  as  much  in  place  as  singing,  and  should  be  in- 
troduced among  us. 

At  Delhi,  we  were  nearly  prevented  from  in- 


CROWD    OF    THE    FAITHFUL  WORSHIPPING  IN   JUMNA 
MOZHID,    DELHI. 

specting  the  beautiful  Pearl  Mosque,  because  it's 
inside  the  fort  and  we  as  foreigners,  were  halted 
from  entering  there.  But  by  good  fortune, 

Mrs.  Meyer  of  our  party,  knew    Lady    , 

whose  husband  yf  a  very  influential  man;  and  she 
gave  us  a  feed  and  then  personally  conducted  us 
thru.  There's  a  singular  dignity  about  the  Mo- 
hammedan worship,  which  is  reflected  with  deli- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          481 

cate  beauty  in  their  mosques,  tombs  and  palaces. 
In  approaching  the  Taj  Majal,  that  architectural 
pearl  secreted  by  the  labor  of  many  thousand 
slaves,  we  felt  sure  no  building  could  realize  the 
expectations  that  its  describers  had  raised  in 
us  of  this  one.  But  on  the  night  that  we  saw  its 
white  domes  float  like  bubbles  in  the  moonlight, 
we  knew  that  no  description  ever  did  this  struc- 
ture justice. 


SECTION  4 

"Art  thou  a  statesman  and  canst  not  be  a 
hypocrite?  Impossible!  Do  not  distrust  thy  vir- 
says  he  has  been  reported  dead  on  the  authority 
his  death  and  his  burial.  On  15  occasions  Villa 
tues."-1 

Repression  and  lying  are  found  together.  Each 
is  born  of  a  sort  of  mistrust.  In  a  repressive 
society,  deceit  will  flaunt  itself  everywhere.  The 
ruling  elements  themselves,  not  content  with  for- 
bidding frank  expression  by  those  whom  they  re- 
gard as  dangerous  to  the  community,  go  further, 
by  setting  an  example  in  conscienceless  deceit. 
Gradually  a  profound  mistrust  is  growing  up 
everywhere  of  the  press,  that  institution  which 
once  was  hailed  as  safeguard  of  the  people's  liber- 
ties. All  are  coming  to  realize  that  it  is  not  to 
their  readers  that  newspapers  and  magazines 
look  for  eighty  per  cent  of  their  income  (which 


'J1Dryden — Don    Sebastian. 


482          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

means  their  possibility  of  life)  but  to  advertis- 
ers, and  consequently  that  news  will  be  suppressed 
which  is  unwelcome  to  big  business. 

A  few  days  ago  we  clipped  the  amusing  and 
pertinent  item  printed  below.22  It  concerns  the 
claim  by  the  Mexican,  Villa,  that  "the  present  ad- 
ministration in  Washington  has  been  hoodwinked 
and  victimized  by  Carranzista  propaganda  into 
believing  all  sorts  of  unreliable  and  fantastic  re- 
ports about  himself  and  his  activities. 

"In  support  of  this  latter  contention  Villa  cites 
numerous  specific  instances.  He  calls  attention 
to  the  frequency  with  which  the  administration 
here  has  officially  and  semi-officially  announced 
of  witnesses  which  the  United  States  accepted  as 
reliable,  and  on  four  occasions  his  body  has  been 
identified  by  agents  in  whom  Washington  placed 
implicit  confidence,  he  says,  while  on  one  occasion 
four  witnesses  swore  they  had  seen  him  buried, 
and  their  reports  were  accepted,  he  says,  without 
question." 

Sometimes  the  most  annoying  statements  in  the 
press  are  those  which  put  one  in  a  situation  mere- 
ly ridiculous,  or  which  represent  him  as  express- 
ing views  which  he  never  dreamed  of  holding.  The 
writer  in  the  course  of  a  lecture  at  a  California 
hotel,  expressed  views  which  displeased  local  pa- 
pers. The  meeting  itself  was  perfectly  orderly — 
rather  dull  indeed — and  at  the  end  of  it  we  hap- 
pened to  remark  that  we  were  catching  an  out  of 


?5From  White  Sulphur  Springs,   (W.  Va.)  Day  Letter,  June  4,  1919. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          4&3 

town  train.  Imagine  our  astonishment  to  learn 
from  the  write  ups  of  the  affair  (by  a  reporter 
who  had  not  even  been  present)  that  we  had  been 
"hooted  from  the  platform,"  that  "hisses"  had 
drowned  our  talk,  so  that  we'd  been  obliged  to  flee 
from  town !-:!  Certain  of  our  acquaintances,  more 
or  less  believing  what  they  read,  had  much  merri- 
ment at  our  expense !  On  the  occasion  of  our  next 
address  in  Los  Angeles,  the  most  notorious  of 
these  same  papers  came  out  with  a  series  of  abso- 
lute misquotations.  A  paper  in  our  home  town 
which  has  a  shady  reputation  for  blackmail,  steal- 
ing the  news,  etc.,  copied  these  misquotations,  to 
make  them  a  subject  for  editorials,  and  for  some 
time  continued  to  publish  the  letters  of  indignant 
correspondents  on  the  absurdity  of  our  (sic) 
views!  We  replied  but  no  paper  would  give  us 
space.  On  this  occasion  we  took  written  testimony 
of  several  persons  as  to  the  discrepancy  between 
our  utterances  and  those  of  the  papers ;  and  when 
for  the  third  and  last  time  we  spoke  in  Los  An- 
geles, we  had  every  word  taken  down  by  a  re- 
porter of  our  own.  So  this  time  the  account  in- 
cluded nothing  about  the  speech,  but  only  of  an 
occurrence  afterward,  an  article  made  up  whole- 
piece  of  imagination !  This  was  in  the  Times.  In 
one  column  of  print  there  were  by  count  thirty 
lying  statements!  "Going  some!"  The  papers 
knew  themselves  to  be  safe  because  we  stood  for 


23 We  wrote  a  reply  to  these  charges,  but  of  course  could  not  suc- 
ceed in  getting  more  than  a  few  lines  space  in  a  not-prominent 
section  of  the  paper. 


484          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

an  extremely  unpopular  cause,  were  badly  in- 
volved with  the  courts,  and  because  they  formed 
an  almost  impregnable  aggregation. 

But  in  any  case  you've  scarcely  any  chance  of 
winning  a  libel  case  against  them,  because  they 
guard  their  statements  with  "alleged,"  etc.,  and 
deal  so  much  in  innuendos.  Thus  a  paper  comes 
out  with :  "We  wish  to  apologize  to  Mrs.  Orville 
Overholt.  In  our  paper  last  week  we  had  a  head- 
ing, 'Mrs.  Overholt's  Big  Feet.'  The  word  we 
had  ought  to  have  used  is  a  French  word,  pro- 
nounced the  same  way,  but  spelled  fete.  It  means 
a  celebration  and  is  considered  a  very  tony 
word." — Williamsville  (N.  D.)  Item. 

"Never  state  as  a  fact  anything  you  are  not 
certain  about,"  the  great  editor  warned  the  new 
reporter,  "or  you  will  get  us  into  libel  suits.  In 
such  cases  use  the  words  'alleged,'  'claimed,' 
'reputed,'  'rumored,'  and  so  on." 

And  then  this  paragraph  appeared  in  the  society 
notes  of  the  paper  : 

It  is  rumored  that  a  card  party  was  given  yes- 
terday by  a  number  of  reputed  ladies.  Mrs.  Smith, 
gossip  says,  was  hostess.  It  is  alleged  that  the 
guests,  with  the  exception  of  Mrs.  Bellinger,  who 
says  she  hails  from  Leavitt's  Junction,  were  all 
from  here.  Mrs.  Smith  claims  to  be  the  wife  of 
Archibald  Smith,  the  so-called  "Honest  Man" 
trading  on  Key  Street. 

And  when  the  editor  had  read  the  report  a 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          485 

whirling  mass  claiming  to  be  the.  reporter  was 
projected  through  the  window. 

It's  hard  to  say  which  is  the  more  mischievous 
— a  lying  press,  or  the  censorship  of  opinion.  A 
story  is  told  of  a  woman  who  never  permits  any 
argument  or  discussion  of  her  mandates.  One 
afternoon  a  storm  came  up  and  she  asked  her  son 
Tommy  to  close  the  trap-door  leading  to  the  flat 
roof  of  the  house. 

"But,  Mother — "  began  Tommy. 

"Thomas,  I  told  you  to  shut  the  trap." 

"Yes,  but  Mother— " 

"Thomas,  shut  that  trap !" 

"All  right,  Mother,  if  you  say  so,  but—" 

"Thomas!" 

So  Thomas  slowly  climbed  the  stairs  and  shut 
the  trap.  The  afternoon  went  by  and  the  storm 
howled  and  raged.  Two  hours  later  the  family 
gathered  for  dinner,  and  when  the  meal  was  half 
over,  Aunt  Anna,  who  was  staying  with  them,  had 
not  appeared.  The  mother  started  an  investiga- 
tion, but  she  did  not  have  to  ask  many  questions. 
Tommy  answered  the  first  one : 

"Mother,  she  is  on  the  roof." 

We  read  in  an  article  by  H.  A.  Warren: 

"Interference  with  freedom  of  inquiry  and  in- 
struction in  recent  years  has  been  largely  confined 
to  the  department  of  philosophy,  psychology,  and 
economics,  particularly  the  last.  Philosophic 
theory  and  psychological  principles  occasionally 
come  into  conflict  with  traditional  ecclesiastical 


486          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

interpretations.  Only  last  year,  for  example,  Dr. 
John  M.  Mecklin,  professor  of  philosophy  and 
psychology  at  Lafayette  College,  resigned  under 
pressure  on  account  of  alleged  lack  of  harmony  be- 
tween his  teachings  and  the  tradition  of  his  insti- 
tution .... 

"This  summer  the  head  of  the  psychological  de- 
partment at  a  state  university,  a  psychologist 
in  good  standing,  was  dismissed  on  indefinite 
charges,  his  petition  for  a  faculty  committee  of 
inquiry  being  denied.  At  one  of  the  state  normal 
schools  an  assistant  professor  of  psychology  of 
several  years'  standing  was  dismissed  without 
warning  after  a  brief  hearing  before  the  board. 

"The  researches  of  economists  and  sociologists 
often  conflict  with  the  interests  of  political  lead- 
ers and  organized  wealth.  In  1895  Professor  Be- 
mis  of  Chicago,  and  in  1900  Professor  Ross  of 
Stanford,  were  retired  from  their  chairs  in 
economics.  Friends  of  the  meji  claimed,  in  each 
case,  that  pressure  had  been  exerted  by  patrons  of 
the  institution  on  account  of  certain  economic  doc- 
trines which  they  taught.  .  .  . 

"In  1911  Professor  Banks  was  dismissed  from 
the  University  of  Florida,  following  the  publica- 
tion of  an  article  in  The  Independent,  in  which 
he  stated  his  conviction  that  teachers  and  others 
in  positions  of  influence  made  a  grievous  mistake 
in  the  generation  prior  to  the  Civil  War  in  not  pav- 
ing the  way  for  a  gradual  removal  of  slavery 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          487 

without  the  loss  of  so  many  lives  and  the  conse- 
quent pension  burden. 

"Early  in  1913  the  professor  of  economics  and 
social  science  at  Wesleyan,  Dr.  Willard  C.  Fisher, 
was  summarily  suspended  after  some  casual  re- 
marks in  a  public  lecture  regarding  the  observa- 
tion of  the  Sabbath.  Last  autumn  Dr.  J.  L. 
Lewinsohn,  professor  of  law  at  the  University  of 
North  Dakota,  resigned  under  pressure,  the  au- 
thorities having  disapproved  of  his  active  partici- 
pation in  the  political  campaign.  He  claims  to 
have  been  censured  by  the  dean  for  attending  a 
conference  of  leaders  of  the  Progressive  Party. 

"During  the  past  winter  it  was  charged  in  the 
press  that  Dr.  King  and  Dr.  Nearing,  two  econo- 
mists in  the  Wharton  School  of  Finance  at  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  had  been  denied  de- 
served promotion  on  account  of  some  statistical 
inquiries  relating  to  local  and  state  enterprises. 

"In  March,  Professor  A.  E.  Morse  relinquished 
the  chair  of  political  science  at  Marietta  College, 
Ohio.  He  claims  to  have  been  'practically  forced 
to  resign  for  political  reasons.'  ....  The  attitude 
of  the  college  toward  the  principle  of  academic 
freedom  is  announced  in  an  official  bulletin  .... 
'it  is  the  sacred  duty  of  the  institution  (to  censor) 
according  to  their  own  judgment  and  the  dictates 
of  their  own  conscience.  At  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion two  members  of  the  faculty,  friends  of  Dr. 
Morse,  were  offered  the  choice  of  resignation  or 
dismissal.  No  charges  were  formulated  in  the 


488          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

resolution  which  summarily  cancelled  their  profes- 
sional license.  Both  men  were  professors  of  sev- 
eral years'  standing  and  heads  of  departments."2* 

We  ourselves  so  thoroly  despise  the  argu- 
ment 'that  the  number  of  assenting  minds  is 
proof  of  a  proposition's  Tightness,'  that  we  have 
to  confess  we  haven't  the  least  right  to  over-ride, 
rough-shod,  the  objections  of  morally  and  even 
intellectually,  the  most  despicable  persons.  If 
any  one  can't  agree  with  the  point  of  view  now 
to  be  propounded,  we  release  him  from  any  obli- 
gation to  respect  our  standards  of  right  and 
wrong  and  beg  him  to  find  others  of  his  own; 
only  in  return  we  demand  that  he,  too,  shouldn't 
presume  to  hold  us  bound  by  his  standards,  but 
admit  our  right  to  formulate,  and  follow,  stand- 
ards of  our  own. 

Tolerance  of  others,  as  Spencer25  has  shown, 
must  be  extended  to  the  point  where  liberty  ac- 
corded does  not  interfere  with  an  equal  liberty 
being  enjoyed  by  others.  Only;  the  following 
testimony  may  reasonably  be  looked  for  from 
those  who  profess  a  higher  morality  than  their 
fellows, — namely  that  they  make  as  much  of  a 
point  of  manifesting  the  new  virtues  enjoined  by, 
or  cultivated  by,  their  creed,  as  they  are  of  en- 
joying the  new  liberties  which  it  permits. 

We  can't  conclude  this  chapter  better  than  by 


24Howard    Crosby    Warren    in    an    article   on    Academic    Freedom. 
"Herbert  Spencer — Man   vs.    State. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          489 

quoting  at  length  from  an  editorial  by  B.  H. 
Stamper.26 

"One  day  a  friend  met  an  enthusiastic  sup- 
porter of  the  proposed  union  of  the  provinces  to 
say:  'Pastor,  do  you  know  that  your  elder,  Mr. 
Blank,  is  very  angry  because  you  are  advocating 
Confederation?'  'But  have  you  and  Elder  Blank 
ever  thought  how  angry  I  am  with  him  because 
he  is  opposing  Confederation?'  quietly  asked  Dr. 
Grant.  'Now  go  back  and  tell  him  how  foolish 
it  is  for  either  of  us  to  refuse  the  other  the  right 
of  deciding  for  himself.' 

"Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  it  is  the  opposer 
who  usually  manages  to  find  an  intermediary  will- 
ing to  go  to  the  man  manifestly  within  his  rights 
and  plead  with  him  to  smother  his  convictions  or 
yield  an  essential  point,  in  the  interest  of  peace. 
The  third  person  rarely  has  the  courage  to  rebuke 
the  tyrant's  insolence  ....  "our  neighbors  had  the 
only  organ  in  our  farming  community.  We  fairly 
revelled  in  the  hymn  singing  the  new  instrument 
developed.  But  one  evening  when  the  older 
scholars  went  to  rehearse  some  songs  for  our 
school  exhibition  we  found  that  the  organ  had 
disappeared. 

"The  eldest  son  pinched  me  to  follow  him  out 
to  the  woodshed,  where  he  informed  me  that  his 
mother's  uncle,  Joshua,  who  had  just  arrived  was 
a  Mennonite  of  the  old  school  and  hated  musical 
instruments  as  devices  of  the  devil.  So  the  organ 


MB.  H.   Stamper,   Los  Anueles  Examiner,  April  4,   1913. 


490          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

had  to  be  hidden  in  the  clothes  closet  until  the  be- 
whiskered  guest's  departure.  Otherwise  the 
family  knew  that  Uncle  Joshua  would  rage  with 
righteous  indignation  and  make  his  entire  stay 
most  unpleasant. 

"Now,  that  old  man's  attitude  toward  innova- 
tions is  a  fair  type  of  the  opposition  of  the  op- 
poser  in  every  realm.  He  always  considers  his 
anger  toward  the  proposed  reform  to  be  infinitely 
more  sacred  than  the  reformer's  anger  toward  the 
evil  he  is  warring  against.  .  .  .  Then  it  is  sur- 
prising and  chagrining  to  notice  how  many  fool- 
ish people  there  are  who  set  about  to  mollify  him 
even  to  blaming  the  reformer  who  has  aroused  his 
ire. 

"These  tyrants  of  yesterday  are  usually  prompt 
to  abdicate  after  their  first  outburst  of  rage  has 
been  bravely  met.  They  have  very  little  reserve 
strength.  Argument  demolishes  their  defences. 

"And  this  is  my  plea:  Stand  by  the  innovator 
if  you  believe  he  is  right.  Do  not  heed  the  op- 
poser's  pretense  at  indignation.  Let  not  his  show 
of  rage  bully  you  into  a  plea  for  peace  when  there 
should  be  no  peace.  Turn  upon  the  reactionary, 
not  upon  the  progressive  and  rebuke  Him." 

Thus  when  a  radical  gets  into  trouble  with  the 
authorities  on  account  of  something  he  clearly 
had  a  right  to  do,  everyone  who  stood  inertly  by 
while  wrongs  were  being  perpetrated  now  bit- 
terly reproaches  the  radical  for  the  worry  he  has 
brought  upon  his  dear  ones.  Scarcely  anyone 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          491 

goes  to  the  authorities  and  calls  them  down  for 
their  abuse  of  power.  Yet  we  claim  we've  not 
become  a  servile  people! 

"When  some  falsehood  with  its  brand 
Stalks  like  Goliath,  ravaging  the  land 
Fit  thou  the  pebble  Truth  within  thy  sling 
And  then,  like  David,  fling!" 


CHAPTER    VII 

Losing  one's  temper  is  particularly  character- 
istic of  degenerate  minds.  The  normal  mind  more 
quickly  throws  off  a  spasm  of  this  unpleasant  emo- 
tion. The  foresighted  person  will  utilize  his  fight- 
ing propensities  themselves  in  combating  his  own 
proneness  to  anger,  on  account  of  the  remorseful 
consequence  which  follow  this  passion.  Finally, 
the  altruist  especially  will  battle  against  the  hu- 
man weakness  for  following  with  the  mob  into 
violence. 


SECTION  I 

"Blessed  be  the  Lord,  my  strength,  which 
teacheth  my  hands  to  war  and  my  fingers  to 
fight."  (Ps.  144:1) 

"And  thou  shalt  consume  all  the  people  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  shall  deliver  thee:  thine  eye 
shall  have  no  pity  upon  them."  (Deut.  7:16) 

"Of  the  cities  of  these  people,  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  doth  give  thee  for  an  inheritance,  thou 
shalt  save  alive  nothing  that  breatheth ;  but  thou 
shalt  utterly  destroy  them."  (Deut.  20:16-17) 

"And  they  warred  against  the  Midianites,  as 
the  Lord  commanded  Moses;  and  they  slew  al> 
the  males."  (Num.  31 :7-10) 

"And  we  took  all  his  cities  at  that  time,  and 
utterly  destroyed  the  men,  and  the  women,  and 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          493 

the  little  ones  of  every  city,  we  left  none  to  re- 
main." (1  Deut.  2:24-25-34) 

"And  we  utterly  destroyed  them  as  we  did  unto 
Sihon,  king  of  Heshbon,  utterly  destroying  the 
men,  women  and  children  of  every  city."  (Deut. 
3:3-6) 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  Joshua,  'See  I  have 
given  into  thine  hand  Jericho  .  .  .  and  they 
utterly  destroyed  all  that  was  in  that  city,  both 
man  and  woman,  young  and  old.'  "  (Josh.  6 :2-21) 

It  should  be  evident  enough  from  the  above 
quotations  that  Javeh,  the  god  of  the  Hebrews, 
by  no  means  shared  the  pacifist  convictions  of 
his  alleged  son  Jesus.  Allah  and  Mohammed 
were  in  much  better  accord,  and  preached  the 
sword  as  a  legitimate  means  for  the  settlement  of 
differences.  But  Jesus'  followers  seldom  have 
taken  seriously  his  really  radical  utterances, 
whether  in  regard  to  war  or  to  property,  etc. 

If  anyone  claims  that  the  days  of  persecution 
and  of  religious  wars  are  over,  we  call  his  atten- 
tion to  the  way  in  which  religious  sanctions  were 
invoked  upon  their  bloody  work  by  all  the  partici- 
pants in  this  recent  war. 

Miss  Slocum,  in  a  newspaper  article,  describes 
her  experiences  of  this  thing  in  Germany : 

"Germans  believed  the  'fatherland'  attacked  by 
cruel  envious  foes.  .  .  . 

"During  the  early  stages  of  the  war  they 
thronged  the  churches.  While  in  no  respect  sen- 
sational, the  countrywide  rush  to  the  churches 


494          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

had  in  it  certain  elements  of  a  huge  religious  re- 
vival. .  .  . 

"Despite  a  considerable  lapse  from  the  first  in- 
tensity of  emotion  the  churches  have  held  a  good 
share  of  their  gains,  and  the  Kaiser's  pious  talk 
— 'Forward  with  God!'  and  all  that — goes  down 
whole. 

"Even  today  German  pastors  can  bid  their  peo- 
ple 'stand  for  the  right,  as  Martin  Luther  did,' 
tho  the  Kaiser's  prayers  for  an  'honorable  peace' 
and  for  divine  grace  to  'treat  our  enemies  in  a 
Christian  manner'  is  no  longer  read  in  churches 
by  his  majesty's  orders.  Perhaps  his  conscience 
smote  him. 

"Meanwhile  the  Kaiser  talks  piety.  The  Ger- 
mans swallow  that  with  the  same  willingness — 
even  delight.  Beyond  question,  the  religiosity  of 
the  imperial  household  has  accomplished  a  lot 
toward  preventing  rebellion  in  Prussia.  .  .  . 

"Their  devotion  to  the  Prince  of  Peace  bred  few 
if  any,  pacifists  among  the  clergy.  .  .  . 

"The  great  bulk  of  the  German  people,  religious 
by  instinct,  cleave  to  the  church,  and  the  imperial 
German  government  finds  in  the  church  an  in- 
valuable medium  for  propaganda.  Thus  it  con- 
trives to  maintain  its  hold  on  the  sentimentality 
of  Germans  behind  the  lines  and  of  Germans  in 
the  trenches.  Innumerable  books  and  pamphlets 
linking  war  with  religion  are  flooding  Germany 
today. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          495 

"While  the  immediate  cause  of  this  worst  of 
wars  is  autocracy,"  comments  C.  S.  Hunt,  in  The 
Truth  Seeker,1  a  "cause  of  autocracy  is  religion." 
The  autocrat  finds  precedent  and  sanction  for  all 
tyranny  in  the  bible. 

"In  2  Kings,  Chapter  IX,  he  reads  that  the  Lord 
anointed  Jehu  king  of  Israel,  and  told  him  to 
smite  the  house  of  Ahab. 

"We  no  longer  punish  the  son  for  the  crime  of 
the  father.  The  Lord  and  Jehu  did.  In  Chapter 
X  Jehu  directs  that  seventy  men  of  Ahab's  fam- 
ily be  beheaded.  The  seventy  heads  were  brot 
in  baskets ;  after  which  Jehu  denied  what  he  had 
done,  just  as  the  autocrat  now  does  (Verse  9) : 
'I  conspired  against  thy  master,  and  slew  him; 
but  who  sleiv  all  these?' 

"Then,  as  if  admitting  the  act,  he  slays  more 
(11) :  'So  Jehu  slew  all  that  remained  of  the 
house  of  Ahab,  all  his  great  men,  his  kinfolks, 
and  his  priests,  until  he  left  none  remaining/ 

"Still  bloodthirsty,  he  met  forty-two  brethren 
of  another  king,  Ahaziah,  and  'slew  them  at  the 
pit  of  the  shearing  house.'  Then  he  went  to  Sa- 
mariah  and  'slew  all  that  remained  of  the  house 
of  Ahab  .  .  .  according  to  the  saying  of  the 
Lord  which  he  spake  to  Elijah.'  Then,  disliking 
the  Baalites,  who  were  created  by  the  Lord  for 
some  unknown  reason,  Jehu  pretended  to  join 
them  and  assisted  in  their  rites,  then  smote  every 
one  of  them.  All  the  autocrat's  preachers  learned 


JOctober  12,  1918. 


496          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

this  lesson;  then  taught  the  people  that  their 
monarch  was  divine  and  should  kill  all  peoples 
whom  he  disliked,  or  when  he  wants  their  lands. 

"  'Now  we  understand  why  the  other  nations 
pursue  us  with  hatred;  they  do  not  understand 
us.  So  were  the  Jews  hated  in  antiquity,  because 
they  were  the  representatives  of  God  on  earth.' 

"See  'Gems  of  German  Thot,  by  Wm.  Archer, 
page  78:'  Then  these  expressions  from  preach- 
ers: 

"  'God  has  chosen  the  German  people/ — De 
Preuss. 

"  'Germany  is  chosen,  for  her  own  good  and 
that  of  other  nations,  to  undertake  their  guid- 
ance.'— H.  S.  Chamberlain. 

"  'God  has  taken  the  German  nation  under  his 
care  or  in  any  case  has  some  special  purpose  in 
view  for  it.' — Pastor  Lehmann. 

"  'World  mission — that  of  imparting  to  the 
other  peoples  the  achievements  of  its  Kultur,  so 
that  all  lands  may  be  filled  with  the  Glory  of 
God.' — Pastor  Hennig. 

"  'We  shall  permeate,  in  the  name  of  God,  a 
world  which  has  become  poor  and  desolate.' — 
Pastor  Rump. 

"  'This  German  mission  is :  to  look  after  the 
world.' — Pastor  Traub. 

'"Germany  the  center  of  God's  plans  for  the 
world.' — Pastor  Lermann. 

"  'Jesusless  horde,  a  crowd  of  the  Godless,  are 


Prof.  W.   Sombart,   Handler  und  Helden,  page   142. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          497 

in  the  field  against  us.  May  God  surround  us 
with  his  protection  .  .  .  since  our  defeat  would 
also  mean  the  defeat  of  his  son.' — Pastor  Rump. 

"As  the  Lord  gave  Canaan  to  the  Jews,  so  he 
gave  Belgium  to  the  autocrat,  the  land  to  be 
earned  by  killing  the  people. 

"  'When  thou  comest  nigh  to  a  city,  .  .  .  and 
it  makes  the  answer  of  peace  and  open  unto  thee, 
then  all  the  people  therein  shall  be  tributaries, 
and  serve  thee.  And  if  it  make  no  peace,  thou 
shalt  beseige  it,  ...  and  smite  every  male.' 

"King  Menahaem  knew  this  divine  law,  and 
followed  it. 

"  'Then  Menahaem  smote  Tiphsah,  because 
they  opened  not  to  him,  .  .  .  and  all  the  women 
therein  that  were  with  child  he  ripped  up.' — 2 
Kings,  XV,  16. 

"  'So  Joshua  .  .  .  utterly  destroyed  all  that 
breathed,  as  the  Lord  had  commanded.'  'Go  and 
smite  Amalek,  slay  both  man  and  women,  infant, 
ox  and  sheep.  .  .  .  And  Saul  smote  the  Amale- 
kites,  and  utterly  destroyed  all  the  people/ 

"  'And  David  smote  the  land  and  left  neither 
man  or  woman  alive.' 

"Higher  criticism  rejects  the  Jewish  horrors; 
but  our  people  do  not  know  the  Bible.  When  they 
do,  they  will  discard  it.  If  not,  we  are  doomed 
to  frequent  slaughter,  outrage  and  destruction. 
By  chance,  Hosea  was  right:  'My  people  are  de- 
stroyed for  lack  of  knowledge.'  This  is  evident: 


498          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

Those  who  sanction  the  autocrat  believe  in  Moses 
and  Elijah." 

"A  writer  in  The  Westminster  Gazette,  M. 
Matheson,  draws  attention  to  an  article  in  The 
Quarterly  Register  of  the  Presbyterian  Alliance. 
For  some  years,  he  declares,  large  secessions  from 
the  German  Protestant  State  Church  have  been 
in  progress,  it  being  estimated  that  during  1912- 
13  some  80,000  withdrew  and  during  the  first  four 
months  of  this  year  about  30,000.  The  reasons 
suggested  are  'the  spread  of  the  scientific  spirit 
and  the  growth  of  social  democracy.'  In  explana- 
tion of  the  latter  the  writer  quotes  this : 

"^he  authorities  of  the  Protestant  State 
Church,  and  notably  the  pastors,  are  the  tradi- 
tional supporters  of  the  Throne,  the  buttresses 
of  the  ruling  caste.  Every  measure  introduced 
by  the  Government  having  for  its  purpose  the 
limitation  or  curtailment  of  the  liberties  of  the 
people  has  had  the  support  of  the  Church.  Never 
a  protest  is  raised  at  the  piling  up  of  armaments." 

Regarding  the  persecutions  which  were  abetted 
by  the  Church  when  it  had  the  power,  Lecky,  we 
think  it  is,  says :  * 

"They  were,  in  the  overwhelming  majority  of 
cases,  simply  the  natural,  legitimate,  and  inevit- 
able consequences  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  re- 
ceived theology.  That  portion  is  the  doctrine 
that  correct  theological  opinions  are  essential  to 
salvation,  and  that  theological  error  necessarily 


*History   of  European   Morals. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          499 

inyolves  guilt.  To  these  two  opinions  may  be 
distinctly  traced  almost  all  the  sufferings  that 
Christian  persecutors  have  cause,  almost  all  the 
obstructions  they  have  thrown  in  the  path  of 
human  progress;  and  these  sufferings  have  been 
so  grievous  that  it  may  be  reasonably  questioned 
whether  superstition  has  not  often  proven  a 
greater  curse  than  vice  and  that  obstruction  was 
so  pertinacious,  that  the  contraction  of  theologi- 
cal influence  has  been  at  once  the  best  measure 
and  the  essential  condition  of  intellectual  advance. 
The  notion  that  he  might  himself  be  possibly  mis- 
taken in  his  opinions  which  alone  could  cause  a 
man  who  was  thoroly  imbued  with  these  princi- 
ples to  shrink  from  persecuting,  was  excluded  by 
the  theological  virtue  of  faith,  which,  whatever 
else  it  might  involve,  implied  at  least  an  absolute 
unbroken  certainty,  and  led  the  devotee  to  regard 
all  doubt,  and  therefore  all  action  based  upon 
doubt,  as  sin. 

"To  this  general  cause  of  Christian  persecution 
I  have  shown  that  two  subsidiary  influences  may 
be  joined.  A  large  portion  of  theological  ethics 
was  derived  from  writings  in  which  religious 
massacres,  on  the  whole  thot  ruthless  and  san- 
guinary upon  accord,  were  said  to  have  been  cor- 
rectly enjoined  by  the  Diety  in  which  the  duty 
of  suppressing  idolatry  by  force  was  given  a 
greater  prominence  than  any  article  of  the  moral 
code,  and  in  which  the  spirit  of  intolerance  has 
found  its  most  eloquent  and  most  passionate  ex- 


500          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

pressions.  Besides  this,  the  destiny  theologians 
represented  as  awaiting  the  misbeliever  was  so 
ghastly  and  so  appalling  as  to  render  it  almost 
childish  to  lay  any  stress  upon  the  earthly  suffer- 
ing that  might  be  inflicted  in  the  extirpation  of 
error. 

"That  these  are  the  true  causes  of  the  great 
bulk  of  Christian  persecution,  I  believe  to  be  one 
of  the  most  certain  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant facts  in  history.  For  the  detailed  proof, 
I  can  only  refer  to  what  I  have  elsewhere  written ; 
but  I  may  here  notice  that  that  proof  combines 
every  conceivable  kind  of  evidence  that  in  such 
a  question  can  be  demanded.  It  can  be  shown 
that  these  principles  would  naturally  lead  men 
to  persecute.  It  can  be  shown  that  from  the  time 
of  Constantine  to  the  time  when  the  rationalistic 
spirit  wrested  the  bloodstained  sword  from  the 
priestly  hand,  persecution  was  uniformly  de- 
fended in  long,  learned  and  elaborate  treaties,  by 
the  best  and  greatest  men  the  Church  had  pro- 
duced, by  sects  that  differed  on  almost  all  other 
points,  by  multitudes  who  proved  in  every  con- 
ceivable manner  the  purity  of  their  zeal." 

But  it  would  be  unjust  to  accuse  the  Church  of 
monopolizing  the  leadership  in  this  direction.  The 
Church  monopolizes  leadership  in  nothing;  it  fol- 
lows. Both  religion  and  philosophy  function  to 
adjust  the  popular  conscience  to  that  as  moral  or 
reasonable  which  stronger  influences  have  de- 
cided upon  as  expedient.  As  regards  philosophy, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          501 

we  may  take  for  an  analogous  example  a  tendency 
thus  criticized  by  John  Dewey:* 

"Recently,  there  has  sprung  up  a  so-called 
'naturalistic'  school  of  ethics  which  has  formu- 
lated explicitly  the  principle  of  self-assertion, 
and  which  claims  to  find  scientific  sanction  for  it 
in  the  evolutionary  doctrine  of  Darwin.  Evolu- 
tion, it  says,  is  the  great  thing,  and  evolution 
means  the  survival  of  the  fit  in  the  struggle  for 
existence.  Nature's  method  of  progress  is  pre- 
cisely, so  it  is  said,  ruthless  self-assertion.  .  .  . 
Nature  affords  a  scene  of  egoistic  endeavor  or 
pressure,  suffer  who  may,  of  struggle  to  get 
ahead,  that  is  ahead  of  others,  even  by  thrusting 
them  down  and  out.  But  the  justification  of  this 
scene  of  rapine  and  slaughter  is  that  out  of  it 
comes  progress,  advance,  everything  that  we  re- 
gard as  noble  and  fair.  Excellence  is  the  sign  of 
excelling ;  the  goal  means  outrunning  others.  The 
morals  of  humility,  of  obedience  to  law,  of  pity, 
sympathy,  are  merely  a  self-protective  device  on 
the  part  of  the  weak  who  try  to  safeguard  their 
weakness  by  setting  fast  limitations  to  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  truly  strong.  .  .  . 

"PRACTICAL  VOGUE  OF  THE  UNDERLY- 
LYING  IDEA.— Such  a  theory,  in  and  of  itself, 
is  a  literary  diversion  for  those  who,  not  being 
competent  in  the  fields  of  outer  achievement, 
amuse  themselves  by  idealizing  it  in  writing. 
Like  most  literary  versions  of  science,  it  rests 


*Dewey    and    Tuft's    Ethics, 


502  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

upon  a  pseudo-science,  a  parody  of  the  real  facts. 
But  at  a  time  when  economic  conditions  are  put- 
tin?  an  extraordinary  emphasis  upon  outward 
achievement,  upon  success  in  manipulating  na- 
tural and  social  resources,  upon  "efficiency"  in 
exploiting  both  inamimate  energies  and  the  minds 
and  bodies  of  other  persons,  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple of  this  theory  has  a  sanction  and  vogue 
which  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  number  of 
those  who  consciously  entertain  it  as  a  theory  .  .  . 
our  current  standards  are  sentimental  and  arti- 
ficial, aiming  to  make  survive  those  who  are  unfit, 
and  thus  tending  to  destroy  the  conditions  that 
made  for  advance,  and  to  introduce  such  as  make 
towards  degeneration.  But  this  argument  (1) 
wholly  ignores  the  reflex  effect  of  interest  in  those 
who  are  ill  and  defective  in  strengthening  social 
solidarity — in  promoting  those  ties  and  reciprocal 
interests  which  are  as  much  the  prerequisites  of 
strong  individual  characters  as  they  are  of  a 
strong  social  group.  And  (2)  it  fails  to  take  into 
account  the  stimulus  to  foresight,  to  scientific  dis- 
covery, and  practical  invention,  which  has  pro- 
ceeded from  interest  in  the  helpless,  the  weak,  the 
sick,  the  disabled,  blind,  deaf,  and  insane.  Tak- 
ing the  most  coldly  scientific  view,  the  gains  in 
these  two  respects  have,  through  the  growth  of 
social  pity,  of  care  for  the  unfortunate,  been  pur- 
chased more  cheaply  than  we  can  imagine  their 
being  bought  in  any  other  way.  In  other  words, 
the  chief  objection  to  this  "naturalistic"  ethicgrts 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          503 

that  it  overlooks  the  fact  that,  even  from  the  Dar- 
winian point  of  view,  the  human  animal  is  a  hu- 
man animal.  It  forgets  that  the  sympathetic  and 
social  instincts,  those  which  cause  the  individual 
to  take  the  interests  of  others  for  his  own  and 
thereby  to  restrain  his  sheer  brute  self-assertive- 
ness,  are  the  highest  achievements,  the  high-wa- 
ter mark  of  evolution.  The  theory  urges  a  sys- 
tematic relapse  to  lower  and  foregone  stages  of 
biological  development." 

Catherine  seemed  such  a  reliable  girl  that  Mrs. 
Moran  had  no  hesitancy  in  leaving  her  in  charge 
of  the  children  while  she  went  for  a  long  drive. 

"How  did  they  behave  during  my  absence?" 
she  asked  on  her  return. 

"Beautifully,  madam,"  Catherine  replied,  "but 
in  the  end  they  fought  terribly." 

"Why  on  earth  did  they  fight?" 

"To  decide  which  was  behaving  best." 

A  Topeka  business  man.  employs  two  negroes  to 
work  on  his  gardens,  which  he  personally  over- 
sees. One  morning  Sam  did  not  appear. 

"Where  is  Sam,  George?"  he  asked. 

"In  de  hospital,  sah." 

"In  the  hospital?    Why,  how  did  that  happen?" 

"Well,  Sam  he  been  a-tellin'  me  ev'ry  mornin' 
foh  ten  days  he  gwine  to  lick  hia  wife  'cause  o' 
her  naggin'." 

"Well?" 

"Well,  yistiddy  she  done  ovahhead  him,  dat's 
all." 


504          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

SECTION  2 

False  faiths  and  similar  influences  only  have 
excited  in  abnormal  degree  the  ferocious  tenden- 
cies which  in  all  of  us  are  instinctive.  Hear  what 
Wm.  James  says  on  "pugnacity,  anger,  resent- 
ment. In  many  respects  man  is  the  most  ruth- 
less and  ferocious  of  beasts.  As  with  all  gregari- 
ous animals,  'two  souls,'  as  Faust  says,  'dwell 
within  his  breast/  the  one  of  sociability  and  help- 
fulness, the  other  of  jealousy  and  antagonism  to 
his  mates.  Though  in  a  general  way  he  cannot 
live  without  them,  yet,  as  regards  certain  indivi- 
duals, it  often  falls  out  that  he  cannot  live  with 
them  either.  Constrained  to  be  a  member  of  a 
tribe,  he  still  has  a  right  to  decide,  as  far  as  in  him 
lies,  of  which  other  members  the  tribe  shall  cpn- 
sist.  Killing  off  a  few  obnoxious  ones  may  often 
better  the  chances  of  those  that  remain.  And  kill- 
ing off  a  neighbor  tribe  from  whom  no  good  thing 
comes,  but  only  competition,  may  materially  better 
the  lot  of  the  whole  tribe.  Hence  the  gory  cradle, 
the  bellwn  omnium  contra  omnes,  in  which  our 
race  was  reared;  hence  the  fickleness  of  human 
ties,  the  ease  with  which  the  foe  of  yesterday  be- 
comes the  ally  of  today,  the  friend  of  today  the 
enemy  of  tomorrow;  hence  the  fact  that  we,  the 
lineal  representatives  of  the  successful  enactors  of 
one  scene  of  slaughter  after  another,  must,  what- 


-James,  Wm. — Principles  of  Psychology. — v.  2,  p.  410. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          505 

6ver  more  pacific  virtues  we  may  also  possess,  still 
carry  about  with  us,  ready  at  any  moment  to 
burst  into  flame,  the  smouldering  and  sinister 
traits  of  character  by  means  of  which  they  live 
through  so  many  massacres,  harming  others,  but 
themselves  unharmed." 

This  view  must  be  modified  by  the  facts  above 
supplied  by  Dewey,  who  is  the  more  modern 
writer.  Yet  there  is  considerable  truth  still  in 
what  James  says  of  the  derivation  of  our  combat- 
ive qualities.  But  these  don't  necessarily  have  as 
valuable  a  function  today,  when  expressed  in  a 
crude  manner  as  they  had  in  the  past ;  nor  is  their 
value  in  selecting  the  fittest  for  survival  so  great. 
These  elements  in  our  nature  are  as  responsible, 
perhaps,  as  economic  causes  for  turning  civiliza- 
tion into  an  armed  camp. 

SECTION  3 

Juliette, — "Why  slaves,  'tis  in  our  power  to  hang  ye." 
Master — "Very  likely,   'tis   in   our  powers  then  to  be 
hanged,  and  scorn  ye."* 

The  advice  of  Lord  Bacon  was : 

"Nothing  conduces  more  to  the  well  representing  a 
man's  self,  and  securing  his  own  right,  than  not  to  dis- 
arm himself  by  too  much  sweetness  and  good  nature. 

The  virtue  of  soul  that  corresponds  to  the  pug- 
nacious instinct  is  indomitability.3 

Self-respect,    that    commendable    element    in 


'See  Gould. — Brave  Citizens. — p.  35,  p.   40. 

**Kirkpatrick,  E.  A.   "The  Individual   in  the  Making,"  p.  204. 

"Beaumopt    and    Fletcher's. — Sea    Voyag-e — quoted   by    Emerson. 


506 

Pride,  is  necessary  not  only  to  keep  up  the  quality 
of  one's  conduct  but  to  gain  a  hearing  in  this 
rough  world.  With  grace  and  modesty,  bearing 
in  mind  always  the  need  of  tempering  down  (by 
example  at  least)  the  blatant  sensationalism  which 
today  surrounds  us,  we  yet  must  remember  that 
if  we  remain  in  much  retirement,  our  claims  and 
our  projects  will  be  passed  by  and  lost  to  the 
world.  "If  you  don't  blow  your  own  horn,  no- 
body else  will."  No  one  understood  better  the 
need  of  self-advertisement  than  some  of  the  Jew- 
ish prophets  who  affected  the  various  eccentrici- 
ties described  in  the  Old  Testament,  e.  g.,  making 
a  hole  thru  the  city  wall  instead  of  passing  out 
thru  the  regular  gate,  evidently  for  the  purpose 
of  gaining  an  audience.  Confidence,  even  assur- 
ance, is  necessary  to  worldly  success. 

That  indomitability  is  needed  in  life,  is  a  tru- 
ism; what  we  chiefly  need  to  understand  is,  how 
this  quality  may  be  cultivated. 

"Whatever  increases  the  child's  facility  in 
movement,  imagining,  or  remembering,  prepares 
the  way  for  his  voluntary  control  of  these  proc- 
esses and  increases  his  confidence  in  himself  and 
adds  to  his  will  power.  .  .  Experience  in  choosing 
and  directing  action  in  accordance  with  choices 
is  needed  to  develop  freedom  of  voluntary  control. 

"Will  power  is  gained,  not  merely  by  being  in- 
duced in  some  way  to  make  an  effort,  but  by  being 
directed  in  such  a  way  as  to  succeed.  In  other 
words,  'will'  may  to  a  certain  extent  be  developed 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS  507 

more  by  doing  easy  things  than  by  doing  things 
which  because  of  fatigue,  lack  of  interest  or  want 
of  knowledge,  are  difficult  to  do.  The  amount  and 
degree  of  success.  Bather  than  the  frequency  and 
intensity  of  effort,  make  for  progress  in  the  de- 
velopment of  volition.  .  .  . 

By  courage,  we  mean  boldness,  physically**  and 
particularly  moral  determination  and  calm  set- 
tling down  to  the  solving  of  difficulties  instead  of 
whining  and  complaining  about  them.  In  the 
stress  of  sudden  calamities,  such  as  no  one  can 
always  foresee  and  provide  against,  one  carries 
one's  safety  in  one's  own  breast. 

If  we  ask,  what  is  Freedom  ?  You'll  answer  by 
describing  its  opposite  state — saying,  e.  g.,  that 
a  man's  not  free  whom  the  walls  of  the  town  jail 
restrain,  whilst  he  batters  against  them  in  a  vain 
effort  to  escape ;  then  after  he's  given  up  the  as- 
sault, and  sunk  upon  his  couch  jn  sad  despair,  his 
condition  would  be  unaltered  if,  unbeknownst  to 
him,  you  replaced  those  walls  of  stone  with  paper 
walls,  having  only  the  appearance  of  strength.  Or 
would  he  be  in  better  case,  if,  knowing  that  the 
walls  were  torn  away,  he  now  found  himself 
grown  too  feeble  to  move,  or  found  that  the  shame 
of  facing  friends  whom  he'd  disgraced  had  be- 
numbed his  "will-power?"  In  short,  isn't  it  plain 
that  nothing  more  is  necessary,  to  make  man  a 
prisoner  than  himself  alone — even  his  thots? 


=**Vid«  in  Los  Angeles  Examiner.  May  26,  1913,  the  account  of  a 
one  Isaac  Basset,  75  years  old,  who  to  save  his  life  amputated  his 
own  foot. 


508          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

But  can  his  thots  equally  under  all  circum- 
stances give  him  freedom?  Here  are  we  (at  this 
writing)  on  a  ship  in  the  middle  of  the  China 
Sea;  we  couldn't  induce  the  captain  to  set  us 
ashore,  and  if  we  tried  to  swim  ashore  we'd  be 
drowned.  Tho  on  so  small  a  vessel  the  range  of 
our  movements  is  as  small  as  that  of  an  inmate 
of  Sing  Sing,  yet  who'd  call  us  "prisoner?"  We 
even  are  chained  to  this  desk  and  seat  for  another 
hour,  by  our  will  to  finish  our  stint  of  so  many 
pages  to  be  written,  yet  we  regard  ourselves  as 
free  as  that  young  police-officer  in  the  service  of 
the  Nizam,  who  told  us  how  inefficient  had  proven 
the  European  prison  system  in  the  checking  of 
crime  in  Hyderabad,  (thru  which  dominions,  at 
the  time,  we  were  traveling) .  He  told  us  the  na- 
tives truly  looked  forward  to  the  next  term  of  in- 
carceration as  a  relief  from  all  responsibility; 
how  patiently  thoy  accepted  the  prison  duties 
forced  upon  them;  and  what  real  pleasure  they 
took  in  being  able  to  squat  for  long  hours  upon 
the  floors  of  their  barren  cells,  chattering,  or 
dreaming  away  the  exquisite  leisure  of  these  re- 
current vacations. 

The  only  chains  in  which  such  men  can  be  made 
to  languish  are  those  of  superstition;  and  even 
there  their  philosophy  largely  has  freed  them. 
It's  pitiful,  really,  l^ow  people  can  break  away 
from  certain  bonds  but  go  no  further. 

"We  boast  our  emancipation  from  many  super- 
stitions ;  but  if  we  have  broken  any  idols,  it  is 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          509 

through  a  transfer  of  the  idolatry.  What  have 
I  gained,  that  I  no  longer  immolate  a  bull  to 
Jove,  or  to  Neptune,  or  a  mouse  to  Hecate;  that 
I  do  not  tremble  before  the  Eumenides,  or  the 
Catholic  Purgatory,  or  the  Calvinistic  Judgment- 
day, — if  I  quake  at  opinion,  the  public  opinion,  as 
we  call  it ;  or  at  the  threat  of  assault,  or  contume- 
ly, or  bad  neighbors,  or  poverty,  or  mutilation,  or 
at  the  rumor  of  revolution,  or  of  murder?  If  I 
quake,  what  matters  it  what  I  quake  at?  .  .  .": 

One  must,  in  short,  find  the  remedy  for  evils 
ultimately  within  one's  self,  and  the  attack  on 
outer  conditions  must  be  when  and  because  they 
interfere  with  betterment  of  inner  conditions. 

"This  above  all:  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man."** 

It's  the  privilege  of  the  pure  egoist,  alone 
among  mortals,  to  be  quite  trusting  and  happy 
under  all  circumstances.  As  soon  as  a  man  be- 
gins to  regard  as  important  something  beside  him- 
self, he  ceases  to  be  adequate  unto  all  things.  He 
may  resign  himself  to  poverty ;  but  can  he  endow 
his  wife  with  an  equal  resignation?  He  hopes 
to  teach  his  children  to  seek  happiness  within 
themselves  even  as  he  their  father,  can  do;  but 
whilst  they're  now  mere  infants,  how  shall  he 
give  them  the  fortitude  to  laugh  at  the  merry  jest 
of  their  little  playmates,  who  call  their  father  a 
"jailbird?"  This  fact  is  unfortunate;  neverthe- 


TEmerson. 

*  ^Shakespeare—  Hamlet, 


510          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

less,  each  of  us  can  do  his  share  to  put  the  thought 
of  his  community  and  generation  upon  a  less  sor- 
did basis. 

"In  man  .  .  .  the  test  of  an  influence  is  not  .  .  . 
clear  ...  the  great  variety  in  human  tempera- 
ments requires  variations  in  stimuli  for  the  at- 
tainment of  the  same  result."8 

"If  a  man  does  not  keep  pace  with  his  com- 
panions, perhaps  it  is  because  he  hears  a  different 
drummer."0 

"The  conservative  sees  danger  only  in  the  ad- 
vocacy of  the  Red  Flag  and  the  disrespect  for  the 
law.  Both  are  equally  blind  to  the  fact  that  any 
mode  of  creative  effort  which  portrays  life  boldly, 
earnestly  and  unafraid,  may  become  more  dan- 
gerous to  the  present  fabric  of  society  than  the 
loudest  harangue  of  the  soap-box  speaker.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  sentence  of  Mrs.  Alving  in 
"Ghosts."  "I  began  to  look  into  the  seams  of  your 
doctrine.  I  only  wished  to  pick  at  a  single  knot, 
but  when  I  had  got  that  undone,  the  whole  thing 
ravelled  out.  And  then  I  understood  that  it  was 
all  machine-sewn."  Is  there  anything  in  revolu- 
tionary thought  more  powerful  than  this,  and  does 
it  not  turn  the  light  on  the  whole  structure  of 
society,  on  every  phase  of  it? 

"In  other  words,  make  men  and  women  con- 
scious of  the  machine-sewn  fabric  of  society  which 
ravels  out  the  moment  you  pick  at  one  knot,  and 


"Swift.   "Youth   ami   the  Race,"  p.   327. 
"Thoreau,  H.  P, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          511 

you  will  rob  society  of  all  its  glare  and  pretense, 
of  all  its  sham  and  hypocrisy ;  and  that  means  the 
beginning  of  the  end  of  such  a  society. 

"Therein  lies  the  revolutionary  and  social  value 
of  the  Modern  Drama,  not  only  for  the  workers, 
but  for  those  who  need  enlightenment  as  much 
as  the  workers,  the  professional  middle-class,  men 
and  women  who  are  only  now  beginning  to  buck 
up  against,  life  and  who  by  training  and  habit  are 
utterly  unfitted  for  the  shock. 

"In  countries  where  political  oppression  affects 
all  classes,  the  aristocrat  no  less  than  the  peasant, 
the  intellectual  no  less  than  the  ignorant,  feel  the 
paralyzing  effect  of  despotism.  That  is  why  the 
intellectuals  there  have  made  common  cause  with 
the  people,  have  become  their  teachers,  comrades 
and  spokesmen ;  but  in  America  political  pressure 
had  so  far  affected  only  the  "common"  people. 
They  are  thrown  into  prison ;  they  are  clubbed, 
mobbed,  tarred  and  deported.  Therefore  another 
medium  is  needed  to  arouse  the  intellectuals  of 
this  country,  to  make  them  realize  their  relation 
to  the  people,  to  the  social  unrest  and  to  the  bru- 
talities and  abuses  going  on  day  after  day  in  this 
wide  land."10 

The  principle  of  non-resistance  to  evil  hardly 
can  be  carried  to  the  extreme  advocated  by  Tol- 
stoi. We  take  more  the  attitude  expressed  by  Gid- 
dings  in  chapter  20  of  his  "Democracy  and  Em- 
pire." He  finds  complimentary  phases  of  the 


10Goldman,  Emma.— The  Modern  Drama. 


512          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

truth  to  have  been  expressed  by  Tolstoi  and  by 
Neitsche  in  this  way,  that  Neitsche  rightly  fore- 
saw that  vigor  of  type  is  the  goal  of  evolution, 
but  couldn't  see  that  vigor  may  be  expressed  in 
"differentiated"  (i.  e.,  intellectual,  sympathetic, 
etc.,)  forms  as  well  as  in  sheer  brutality,  while 
Tolstoi  put  his  emphasis  upon  the  form  in  which 
acts  should  be  manifested,  but  forgot  that  vigor 
which  must  be  the  underlying  foundation, 

"It  is  only  men  who  have  energy  to  spare  who 
are  normally  altruistic.  On  the  physiological 
side,  altruism  is  a  mode  of  expenditure  of  any 
surplus  energy  that  has  been  left  over  from  suc- 
cessful individual  struggle.  The  meek  shall  in- 
herit the  earth,  not  because  they  are  meek,  but 
because,  taking  one  generation  after  another,  it 
is  only  the  mighty  that  are  or  can  be  meek,  and 
because  the  mighty — if  normally  evolved — are 
also  by  differentiation  meek."11 

SECTION  4 

In  our  school,  Boy  Land,  we've  most  persistent- 
ly argued  against  the  children's  proposals,  or 
tried  to  devise  substitutes  which  would  appeal  to 
them  equally  well,  chiefly  when  they  were  least 
spontaneous,  when  they  absorbed  the  cheap  clap- 
trap of  the  press  about  institutions,  or  clamored 
to  force  all  their  companions  to  adopt  some  fea- 

11F.  H.  Giddings. — Democracy  and  Empire. — p.  351.  Giddings  as- 
sumption, however,  that  the  higher  forms  of  life  necessarily  represent 
more  expenditure  of  energy  than  the  lower,  seems  to  us  purely 
speculative. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          513 

ture  of  the  outside  world  which  was  autocratic  in 
its  nature.  Rightly  or  wrongly  we  thus  en- 
deavored to  draft  away  their  enthusiasm  for  boy- 
scouting.  First  we  inaugurated  the  "June  En- 
gineers," who  learned  to  run  surveys  in  the  hills, 
blaze  and  repair  trails,  and  build  rustic  bridges. 
When  this  plan  was  observed  to  lack  elements 
of  pleasurable  rivalry  and  excitement,  we  got  the 
boys  to  divide  themselves  into  three  societies, 
each  with  certain  special  "chores"  to  do  but  each 
of  which  also  was  assisted  in  building  its  own 
small  chemical  fire  engine ;  when  we  had  fire-drill 
these  rival  companies  dashed  to  it  with  huge  zest. 
Our  objection  to  the  scout  idea  was  the  anti-radi- 
cal purposes  for  which  the  boys  sometimes  were 
employed.  For  instance,  in  the  recent  arrests  of 
suffragists  in  Boston  "you  read  that  the  district 
and  military  police  were  assisted  by  Boy  Scouts. 
It  would  be  well  to  let  Boy  Scouts  keep  out  of  the 
enterprises  in  which  women  are  arrested.  In 
America,  where  women  are  classed  with  non-vot- 
ing idiots,  Indians  and  children,  little  boys  learn 
contempt  for  women  easily  enough.  To  permit 
them  as  children  to  assist  in  arresting  the 
mothers  of  other  boys,  and  thus  develop  early 
their  contempt  for  women  is  rank  stupidity  and 
brutalizes  them  unnecessarily."12 

Nor,  for  that  matter  are  we  converts  to  the 
Rooseveltian  hypothesis  that  'boys  should  settle 
by  physical  combat  their  little  differences  of 


1=Boston  American,   February   11,   1919. 


514          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

opinion ;  it  was  not  in  accord  with  any  doctrine 
of  ours  but  in  childish  response  (comportably  to 
their  ages)  to  instinctive  resentment,  that  our 
girls  and  boys  three  months  ago  sailed  into  that 
delegation  sent  to  the  school  from  a  Sunday  school 
picnic  to  express  the  views  of  their  elders  about 
"Prince  Hopkins,"  and  certain  of  his  unpopular 
policies.  So  long  as  it  remains  purely  a  sport, 
boxing,  tho,  has  always  had  encouragement  at  the 


BOXING,    BOY    LAND. 

school,  for  the  very  reason  that  thus  you  are  able 
to  drain  off  into  a  sportive  channel  an  instinct 
which  else  might  result  in  "bad  blood."  If  only 
national  struggles  might  be  settled  with  padded 
instead  of  mailed  fists! 

Little  quarrelling  have  we  had  at  Boy  Land— 
because  the  children  have  had  few  unconscious 
complexes  to  project  upon  others,  thanks  to  the 
lack  of  repression  in  our  "disciplinary"  regime. 

"All  the  old  abuses  in  society,  the  great  and 
universal  and  the  petty  and  particular,  all  unjust 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          515 

accumulations  of  property  and  power,  are 
avenged  in  the  same  manner.  Fear  is  an  instruc- 
tor of  great  sagacity  and  the  herald  of  all  revolu- 
tions. One  thing  he  always  teaches,  that  there  is 
rottenness  where  he  appears.  He  is  a  carrion 
crow,  and  tho  you  see  not  well  what  he  hovers  for, 
there  is  death  somewhere."13 

As  a  result  of  the  official  inculcation  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  violence,  during  the  past  few  years,  com- 
bined with  forcible  suppression  of  discussion,  and 
the  imprisonment  of  their  older  and  more  conser- 
vative leaders,  many  radicals  in  all  countries  are 
coming  to  believe  that  violence  is  justifiable  in 
protest.  Men  like  Scott  Nearing  who  became 
popular  when  they  were  prosecuted  by  the  gov- 
ernment for  their  pacifist  stand,  already  are  re- 
garded by  a  growing  "left-wing"  element  as  too 
"centrist."  This  change  of  attitude  bodes  no 
good.  The  laboring-man  is  no  expert  in  the  use 
of  violence,  and  in  the  long  run  never  benefits  him- 
self by  resorting  to  it.  We  recommend  everyone 
to  read  Robert  Hunter's  Violence  in  the  Labor 
Movement,  to  see  how  invariably  the  cause  of  the 
masses  has  been  betrayed  by  leaders  who  pro- 
voked them  to  violence.  Such  leaders,  as  was 
the  case  in  the  strike  at  Lawrence,  have  been  sup- 
plied by  "detective"  agencies  in  the  pay  of  the 
mill-owners  to  discredit  the  workers. 

In  an  account  of  the  Russian  revolution,14  oc- 

"Emerson,  R.  W.,  on  "compensation"  in  his   "Critical  Essays,"   v.   1, 
pp.   83-4. 

1(As  quoted  by  the  Melting  Pot,  April,   1919,  from  the  New  Republic. 


516          PHILOSOI^IY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

curs  the  incidental  mention  that  "those  servants 
of  the  autocracy  who  fomented  disorder  in  Petro- 
grad  in  March,  1917,  believed  that  by  creating 
and  suppressing  an  artificial  premature  revolt 
they  could  forestall  and  perhaps  altogether  pre- 
vent the  more  serious  revolt  against  themselves 
which  they  had  good  reason  to  expect  in  the  fu- 
ture. The  autocracy  arrested  the  whole  Labor 
Group  of  the  Central  War  Industries  Committee 
because  that  group  of  patriotic  Socialists  had 
shown  themselves  capable  of  preventing  trouble 
with  the  workmen." 

What  disaster  from  without  and  tyranny  with- 
in the  Bolshevik  regime  is  courting  by  not  stop- 
ping short  of  opposing  violence  with  violence! 

At  the  present  time  we  witness  the  mightiest 
effort  in  history  of  the  masses  of  the  world  to 
break  the  economic  harnesses  in  which  they  are 
made  to  toil.  But  everywhere  they  are  letting 
passion  run  away  with  judgment,  and  are  resort- 
ing to  violent  means.  Half  a  century  of  propa- 
ganda and  pacific  means,  not  merely  the  recent 
events,  had  put  ideals  of  a  better  world  into  the 
minds  of  all  the  peoples ;  these  ideals  in  a  decade 
more  would  have  forced,  by  similar  slow  but  cer- 
tain processes,  their  mature  fruition.  But  now 
the  events  of  the  past  five  years  have  so  filled  all 
minds  with  the  worship  of  force,  that  the  impa- 
tient peoples  (we  say  "impatient"  with  under- 
standing sympathy,  but  with  despairing  pity) 
have  gone  back  to  the  old,  old,  never-yet  success- 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  IJELPFULNESS          517 

ful  means  of  abolishing  capitalism  permanently, 
namely  the  resort  to  armed  insurgency. 

More  would  be  gained  if  instead  of  lending 
themselves  to  increasing  violence  against  other 
groups  the  partizans  of  progressive  movements 
would  make  sure  of  the  utmost  solidarity  within 
their  own  ranks,  and  of  the  inclusion  of  all  pos- 
sible co-workers.  The  writer  was  never  more  in- 
censed than  a  year  ago  last  winter  when  at  a  meet- 
ing of  all  "radical"  and  labor  elements  he  found 
himself  involved  in  parliamentary  duel  with  a 
"labor"  speaker  who  wished  to  exclude  Asiatics 
from  admission  to  the  privileges  of  this  country. 
In  his  splendid  pamphlet  on  Race  Prejudice,1"1 
James  Morton  warns  us  that  "race  prejudice  is 
unfortunately  not  confined  to  the  slums  and  to 
the  'privileged  classes,'  where  so  abnormal  a 
mental  trait  is  to  be  expected.  Even  the  trades 
unions,  representing  many  of  the  most  intelligent 
workingmen  and  workingwomen,  are  ignorant 
and  base  enough  to  draw  the  color  line.  When  a 
great  strike  was  won  in  California  by  the  com- 
bined energy  and  loyalty  of  Americans,  Mexican.* 
and  Japanese,  all  working  together,  Samuel  Gom- 
pers,  head  of  the  Federation  of  Labor,  exhibited 
his  own  unfitness  to  hold  any  honorable  position 
calling  for  an  intelligent  and  broadminded  man, 
by  refusing  to  recognize  the  charter  of  the  local 
Union,  unless  they  would  let  themselves  be  bull- 
dozed into  barring  out  their  Japanese  brothers, 


'•'•Morton,    James — The    Curse    of    Race    Prejudice — pp.    43-44. 


518          PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS 

who  had  stood  by  them  so  nobly  in  the  time  of 
stress.  The  dastardliness  of  this  eminent  leader 
may  be  suffered  to  speak  for  itself.  Numbers  of 
trades  unions,  even  in  the  North,  dishonor  them- 
selves by  adopting  by-laws,  which  prohibit  any 
Negro  from  becoming  a  member.  And  then  they 
complain  that  Negroes  are  scabs  and  strikebreak- 
ers! If  the  Negro  has  not  yet  developed  a  full 
sense  of  the  solidarity  and  brotherhood  of  labor, 
the  blame  must  rest  on  the  shoulders  of  those  who 
would  deny  him  the  right  to  earn  an  honorable 
living  by  the  side  of  his  white  brothers. 

"The  shortsightedness  and  folly  of  the  color  dis- 
crimination of  the  trades  unions  is  even  more  con- 
spicuous than  the  meanness  and  inhumanity  of 
such  a  policy.  The  Negro  cannot  starve,  and  must 
not  be  expected  to  submit  tamely  to  so  gross  an 
injustice.  If  the  white  workingman  refuses  him 
as  a  helper,  he  must  have  him  as  a  rival.  The 
Negro  cannot  help  himself.  He  must  follow  the 
law  of  self-preservation ;  and  the  narrow  race 
prejudice  of  the  trades  unions  is  responsible,  if  he 
is  forced  by  their  unreasoning  and  heartless  os- 
tracism to  become  the  tool  of  the  Baers  and  Par- 
rys,  who  rejoice  in  nothing  so  intensely  as  in  divi- 
^'ons  in  the  ranks  of  labor.  In  a  recent  book,  Pro- 
fessor Graham  Brooks,  who  is  anything  but  a 
fanatic,  and  is  everywhere  recognized  as  a  most 
reliable  observer  remarks : 

"I  asked  one  of  the  largest  employers  of  labor 
in  the  South  if  he  feared  the  coming  of  the  trade 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HELPFULNESS          519 

union.  'No,'  he  said,  'it  is  one  good  result  of 
race  prejudice,  that  the  negro  will  enable  us  in 
the  long  run  to  weaken  the  trade  union  so  that  it 
cannot  harm  us.  We  can  keep  wages  down  with 
the  negro,  and  we  can  prevent  too  much  organi- 
zation.' 

"And  the  average  trades  unionist  is  idiot  enough 
to  play  right  into  the  hands  of  such  'employers 
of  labor/  whose  great  aim  is  to  'keep  wages 
down,'  and  to  prevent  organization!  Dixie,  the 
prominent  organ  of  the  cotton  manufacturers, 
some  time  ago,  made  the  same  brag,  declaring  that 
so  long  as  the  white  and  colored  workingmen 
could  be  kept  apart,  by  fostering  race  prejudice, 
the  existence  of  the  Negro  in  the  South  was  a 
great  blessing  to  employers,  and  that  he  must 
always  be  kept  there,  as  a  means  of  preventing 
the  rise  of  trades  unionism  in  that  section.  That 
trades  unionists,  in  the  very  teeth  of  these  un- 
blushing avowals,  should  allow  themselves  to  be 
made  catspaws  by  the  worst  enemies  of  organized 
labor,  must  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most 
marked  evidences  of  mental  deterioration  under 
the  bane  of  fetichistic  superstition,  which  history 
has  to  record.  A  man  who  is  fool  enough  to  com- 
mit industrial  suicide  to  spite  his  brother  of  a 
darker  skin,  has  only  himself  to  thank,  if  he  fails 
to  awaken  sympathy." 


